SochVichaar on SochVichaar

My posts are generally chains of thought leading to each other without much of post hoc rationalization. In fact, on many topics blogging has helped me develop thought processes and reach my own conclusions as I wrote about them. Thanks to my friends who encouraged me to blog, I've had this beautiful journey of 10 years, albeit with many large gaps in between. I sometimes look back and wish I had written more. More often, I look at now and wish I wrote more. But then, thoughts and ideas evolve at their own natural pace, and until they are mature enough, they don't do anyone any good.

Yet, this blog is not meant for expressing my damn opinion about every damn thing. After all, the world doesn't really give a damn. Thoughts expressed in this blog should be of some value to the readers. Although it may not always achieve that intended effect, but I try my best. In this age of posts which have character limits, blogs with predominantly textual content are a load difficult to bear for net-surfers. To be honest, even I don't generally read articles as lengthy as the ones I myself write, unless I find them very very very interesting after reading the first few lines! But I strongly feel real value can't be delivered under character length limits like 140 characters. Such limits can work only for breaking news which say something unsettling without revealing much detail and keep the reader shaken for some time. Or for celebrities whose each word matters, no matter what they say.

I sometimes wonder about the future of this blog and its content. This blog has changed locations thrice in its career. It was first hosted on o3.indiatimes.com in 2006. But indiatimes gave up on that site, I don't know why, and as it was getting increasingly difficult to post stuff on it, some time in summer of 2007, I moved the whole content - post by post - to livejournal.com. I literally copied each article and pasted into livejournal editor, and also set the date of the article to its original posting date - livejournal allowed setting dates for posts. That's why you see some of my oldest posts on blogger - the current host of my blog, still dated as per their original dates. The movement to blogger from livejournal was done using a tool that did some XML based import from livejournal and export of the XML to blogger. And the great thing about that tool was that it was capable of copying everything - content, title, date, comments - and create a copy on blogger. I had to move to blogger around 2011 coz the Russian guys who ran livejournal decided to shut it down and sent me a date by when I had to move... So I had to move. And I mapped this blog to sochvichaar.com domain name, which I bought for the first time in December 2012 after having an eye on its availability for a long time and finally convincing myself that I wasn't wasting any money buying it. My blog was always called SochVichaar, whatever be the parent hosting location. And having a URL itself called sochvichaar.com for my blog feels awesome, and gives a unique and exclusive identity to my blog.

I could never make any money from this blog... People don't click the damn ads, although I do have a good number of visitors now. So, ladies and gentlemen, please click these ads hanging around and make me some money. I am at $15 right now, earned over 5 years... And need to reach $100 mark to get paid by Google (should I call it ALPHABET now?)!

An update - 20th Aug 2015:

Here's a video - it's my interview taken by Pankaj Mishra when we were at IIML. He did it for an assignment for some course. But like anything else he does, he conducted this interview with a lot of seriousness, which I didn't expect when we started. Although it doesn't show up much, I also got a bit nervous as the conversation was getting recorded with the camera only on me. I think it was Sankalp Mittal who was holding the camera, and he did a good job. It's interesting to hear my views 6 years back. We don't change much, do we?

Global Warming - why are not many worried?

Global warming, as per a report by a guy named Hansen, is taking a dangerous shape at a rapid pace now. Due to warming waters, the animals in the oceans are migrating under water to find better habitats, many are dying. And many species on land are already on the verge of extinction. We may end up having a mass extinction phase soon, and it may have already begun. The future of life on earth would be totally different, and who knows, we humans may be gone too in this large scale wipe-out.

Should I be worried about it? Why should it matter to me as an individual that 100 years later, the species that I belong to may no longer be found on this planet? Or anywhere? As long as my lifetime is not at any big risk, should I be worried? But how to ensure that it is indeed safe until I'm alive? What if it is not? What if the probability of something conclusive happening next year is not 0? What if something pathbreaking happens in research and we find ways to keep ourselves  alive for longer periods and escape natural death - and then be stuck with an earth that we screwed up thinking we'd die before it gets too bad? And what about my family? I don't want them, at least 1-2 generations after mine, to suffer after I die. The generations beyond are too far to worry about.

I think the risk that something might happen in the period of our concern - that's what makes us want to play safer than we'd otherwise do. But since this risk is not really proven and established, it's not that big a worry for most common people. Coz human behavior, as it seems to me right now, is not designed to make one really act on risks that won't materialize in his/her lifetime. Global warming is still a topic of scientific curiosity, and political and business interests. And for common people, it is entertainment and gossip, although while talking about it, they pretend to be seriously worried about something, which they themselves are not sure of. Until someone proves that global warming will kill us soon, adoption of counter measures, like moving away from oil, will still be driven by factors like convenience and style for the rich, affordability for the middle class, commercial viability for the businessmen, entertainment for passionate scientists, career for other scientists, and 'WTF?' for the poor.

This aspect of natural human behavior is understandable, given the kind of selfish instincts built into us by design to secure our individual existence and the all pervading fear of death. I don't know how those jihadis' minds are manipulated to want to die happlily for an outcome that they'll never see. Possibly it needs one to have a strong belief in life after death or reincarnation, and then some random chain of reasoning to guarantee incomparable luxury in that other life somehow linked to the cause they're dying for.

No wonder ban of pornographic movies, corruption, traffic, prices, jobs - these are more important for common people, than issues like global warming. But that is expected and justified coz to ensure a better future and design policies accordingly is the job of the leaders, theoretically. And in democracies, which most countries are today, common people 'elect' the right leaders to do this job by evaluating their relevant capabilities thoroughly, theoretically. Even in countries with other forms of governments, leaders are expected to have that kind of capabilities and wisdom, theoretically. But in reality, leaders are also human (and animal) and are driven by greed and selfish motives. And they are intelligent. If all were to die, the rich and powerful would die last. Well, I know there'll be exceptions, but let's talk majority.

So common people can only benefit from long term transformations pushed by people who are thinking right, and are also able to establish a reasonably strong and near term material benefit of working towards change - a business model - which in the current scenario won't emerge until there is mass adoption of the idea, which means the rich and middle class have to pick it up for whatever reasons. And as noted earlier, the factors driving them would be convenience and style for the rich and affordability for the middle class. Coz the former would help create the brand and social acceptability, while the latter would make it viable and help generate the desired impact.

Do post your views on it.

Thoughts from the sky

Another article coming from an airplane! I have a solid hour and a half to write some shit. It's funny how the word 'shit' is used in general these days for anything at all. Anyway, it's not much use getting senti over things like that. Language is constantly evolving and we humans should be constantly adapting, as we probably can't out-evolve our own creations.

Oops, some turbulence... All's shaking... This is a small aircraft - ATR - Jet Airways flight between Hyderabad and Pune... Shaking scarily now. Just now felt like a free fall for a while, like in a giant wheel while coming down. Am sitting right adjacent to the engine and the fan is making a lot of noise... It was loudest when the plane was taking off, almost hurting the ears. I guess am now flying between clouds, coz the visibility is extremely poor. Must tell you it's 10.09 pm at night - so indeed dark. But with these clouds I now can't even see the grids and lines of lights on the ground. Don't think this small toy-like plane is flying too high.

Since I joined Wipro about a year back, I have been traveling very frequently for official purposes. And all that by air. When I was a kid, flying in a real aeroplane was inconceivable for me. I used to think that seeing one noisily fly high up in the sky was all I could afford in life. I grew up, world changed and air travel became both affordable and normal. I flew for the first time in 2004, when I was 22. Am sure the younger generations fly much earlier than that age. It's just like how the age-of-losing-virginity kind of statistics have been falling over generations. Anyway, the first time is always special, in whatever age you do it. And after many times, you don't even regret the years lost in being-eligible-but-not-doing-it state.

Among a few things that I think am losing time on is traveling the world - all kinds of places (not the obviously risky ones), all over the world. Almost half my reasonably-energetic-for-lot-of-travel life is over, and I've seen only 3 countries - India, Maldives and the US. And even in these 3 countries, just a few parts - though a lot more in India as most of my life has been spent in India... and just a few months in the US, spent mostly in hotel rooms and offices. The latter tells me it's no fun traveling for work. I went to Maldives as a tourist, and it was awesome 5-nights-6-days. Therefore, I want to travel the world as a tourist. But where's the money for that?

I've started reading the book 'The Great Divide' by Joseph Stieglitz. It's a collection of his articles in the recent times and is focussed on the theme of rising inequality of wealth in the US, and how the top 1% own the most of it, with their share increasing in the past few years due to fucked up government policies designed to favor the rich. His earlier book - 'The price of inequality', also dealt with the same topic. I read in some article I came across on facebook today that if Bill Gates decides today to exhaust all his current wealth in the next 30 years, he has to spend a whopping $6mn every day, on an average. While I don't need to explicitly say that's a crazy amount of money he has, I feel it is very unfair that there's this great divide. I will never make that kind of money, probably. It's both sad and amusing to realize the fact that with Bill Gates's average 1 day spend that exhausts his wealth in 30 years, my wife and I can travel all the places in the world we want to and also live happily ever after. Funnier is this - I just made a rough calculation: if Bill Gates keeps all his money in my savings account in SBI just for 1 day and takes it back, at 3% per ammum interest rate, I would roughly make the same amount of money from the interest for the day that he needs to spend every day for the next 30 years to exhaust his wealth, and that I need so as to travel the world with my wife and spend the rest of our life happily ever after. In fact, if Bill Gates keeps all his money in SBI today, he can earn $6mn dollar interest every day which he can spend or do whatever he wants and his deposit will stay as it is forever, unless he spends more than the permissible average on an average, which is insanely high anyway. So, if he keeps his money in a savings account in India, Bill Gates can never exhaust his wealth by spending like normal rich people. He can only give it away. But the idiot will keep it in some American bank, which pays no/low interest. I hope he reads my blog and makes some wise decisions.

Flight has landed safely! Bye for now.

Hello ISRAEL!!!

Something very strange happened yesterday - My blog got 2714 visits from Israel. Check out the table above and you'll see why that's strange. Also note that there hasn't been a single visit from Israel in the past one month before yesterday. The next highest number of visits yesterday was from Russia - 45. I've been getting visits from Russia in the past few days, and until I saw the Israel visits the Russian traffic was surprising to me. And equally surprising now, in comparison, is the low number from India, which I considered normal and significant earlier - given my blog's lack of popularity and regularity - until Israel messed it up. Now everything else seems terribly low. Or there's some serious bug in google's traffic monitoring.

I generally post links to my latest blog-posts on facebook, so that my friends can read them. I do not have a single friend in Israel and Russia. More than 90% of my friends are in India and the US. Other countries may reach my posts through lucky google searches or extremely lucky forwards from common friends or friends of friends or by some such chain. But in no way should these lucky coincidences lead to more readership than from India. Or can they?

Perhaps... if whatever shit I write appeals more to the Israelis and Russians! If that really is the case, I must say I  have finally found my true audience. But they are popping up more like aberrations, than real fans. Come on guys, I need some loyalty from you. So keep reading more of my shit and show me you are my loyal readers. Otherwise, sadly, SochVichaar will remember you like a one-night stand... I hope it's not... :P

At least to some extent, we can figure that out... Readers from Israel and Russia - can you please comment on this post and let me know you're not a bug! At least leave some sign to show me you are real... Look towards right and you'll find my email address as well.

Chalo phir... bye bye... see you...

Should we read books?

Is too much reading really a good habit or plain waste of time?

The world is full of people who will tell you what you should do and what you should not do including those who write all that stuff in books. And somehow there is so much sanctity assigned to the printed word, that we fail to see that it's written by a human who may just be bull-shitting to make money.

Let's ask some basic questions. What could be the possible reasons why reading may be a good thing to do:

1. It helps you learn things about life - I think a better and faster way is to live life better. However, because of human limitations and those of resources & logistics, there is only so much that is possible to experience first hand. So books are supposed to fill that gap and give you perspective about things you've not experienced. Makes sense, but with advances in technology over the past 100 years, books have become too slow a medium to fill gaps. We have other faster ways, that rock, at least superficially. And even if books are still the chosen medium, the fundamentally flawed assumption in this argument is that people read stuff that they do not get to experience. I think that's not generally true. Most people enjoy reading fiction or stuff about others that they can themselves relate to, at some level (say a similar feeling, situation, experience, etc.). They feel some sort of external acceptance or confirmation of being normal in the process and also feel good about whatever they are. And to ensure this feel-good outcome, people are very careful at hand-picking what they read.
2. Reading for pleasure - Well, everyone has a right to choose his/her ways of giving oneself pleasure. So this motive can't be questioned, as long as it is harmless for anybody else. And as mentioned in pt-1, most reading is for pleasure and self-gratification, including feeling normal in this screwed up world.
3. Reading for knowledge - I can't question this motive as well, since seekers of knowledge deserve their freedom to choose where they get it from. And I think there's an inherent assumption that they are wise and mature enough to choose their source based on what they seek. However wisdom and maturity are vague stuff and can't be defined, nor trusted. Anyway, by whatever means, it's important to be selective and smart here so that one does not waste a lot of time reading garbage. And the reason this is important is related to the reason we seek knowledge, rather the reason we should seek knowledge - to make sense of the world we live in. This knowledge is different from the kind referred to in pt-1, which was more related to human experiences. The knowledge am talking about here is factual information about the earth and the universe - whatever leads to the ultimate truth.

I think pt-1 basically means the same as pt-2 - reading for pleasure... and modes of entertainment should be rated based on the pleasure they provide, not by the pace at which they transmit information, and books do pretty well as entertainers for readers of a certain type.

Books, or rather written content, in various forms, have been the prime means of preserving and communicating knowledge for ages. The only other means I can think of are pictures and word-of-mouth. With advances in technology, we have other ways and means of transmitting information, which are faster and more convenient than books, including books on kindle. But at the same time, our minds have a minimum comfortable rate of processing new information, and it needs time also to evaluate and form a point of view. With books, we have a control over that. Books also have more explicitness in the content, so it is less likely that we'd miss important details which we might while watching a video. And physical books can be touched, felt, seen, stored and carried anywhere. It feels like real knowledge in hand.

All in all, although I started writing this article with the opposite view in mind, I now feel books are indeed a powerful medium for acquiring knowledge. And for pleasure, it varies from person-to-person as to which ones, if any at all, are more entertaining.

lots of shit

Just how crazy and sick jobs have become these days can be imagined by considering the fact that in the evenings in India, i.e., from the time America shits to the time America goes to Lunch, there are thousands and thousands of people in these two countries just on conference calls. And often for many in America there is no shitting and no lunch coz of other more urgent things lying in those conference calls and and emails. But beyond a point, shit waits for nobody... and thankfully, phones come with mute buttons. Even while they are not muted, it's shit all over these conference calls. There are different kinds of shit. Drink Red Bull and attend a conference call, and blurt out tons of bull-shit. And follow every call with lengthy unintelligible horse-shit in emails without giving a rat's ass about anybody or anything. And then, open a new can of Red Bull, and proudly bull-shit yourself by saying - "This part of my life is called - Leadership".

And leading who?

Well, the Red Bull part is true only for those in America. Coz of two reasons - First, we in India don't drink so much Red Bull. It's still very expensive for us. We drink Tea from the canteen, or better still, free coffee from the coffee machine at the corner! And second, we are not leaders anyway. Leaders are all in America. The IP for all bull-shit lies there. And in India, we have engineers who write code to ensure the bull keeps on shitting, a bunch of old guys who approve their leaves, and MBAs who, while waiting for their moment to become leaders, decorate imported bull-shit with cherries, whipped cream, client name and love you message, and export it back. The 3rd category is the most stupid and clueless one, and I have belonged to it for quite some time now. I can call myself anything ranging from leader to consultant to manager to architect... but deep down, even god is confused how I am any of that. But given the closest to bull-shit nature of my job, my kind are seen as future leaders by the current leaders in America. And god shouldn't have any problem with that.

There has always been a funda that you should get out of large companies and work for start-ups, if you want to come out of all the bull-shit. Not a lot but on a few occasions I got a chance to interact with these so called entrepreneurs - the guys who found and run these start-ups. I felt these guys talk talk and talk. An extremely self-obsessed breed, and each one a fan of Steve Jobs. And they offer people difficult lives for same or low salaries - sometimes high if there's good funding somehow - in the name of challenges and learning. Here's something a startup in Bangalore is offering, copied from an email I got on IIML alumni group advertising their job... first a bit about what they think they do...

At <company name>, we are building the next­generation ­ competitive intelligence­ platform to deliver business insights through extensive data mining and analytics. Our clients include some of the biggest names in the world of Angel investments and Venture Capitalism. We are a small, tightly knit team, growing very quickly and looking to add quite a few high performers over the next few months.

What we have to offer:

• Long hours, Lots of learning
• Fabulous opportunity to network with VCs, PEs, IBs, incubators and CorpDevs
• Extremely flat hierarchy, No bureaucracy
• Meritocracy ­driven, candid culture
• Very high visibility regarding which startups and markets are exciting globally
• Like­minded, intellectually ­curious colleagues from IITs/NITs/IIMs and BITS

What we DO NOT offer:

• CTC to die for
• Frills such as free food and cab
• Swanky office (though it'll be cozy)

Sounds like a job that can screw your life. But there are people who fall for this shit. I sometimes do too. And there are those - very few indeed - who genuinely enjoy it. Most take these up to get higher designations sooner and then switch to bigger companies at higher levels and better salaries. Sounds like one needs to be too lucky and smart to manage all these eventually... it's like somehow getting an opportunity to dance behind the hero in a bollywood dance number and dancing very well - the best you can - hoping some day someone notices and gets you bigger opportunities - like a dance where you lead - then an item number for you like dard-e-disco - then a lead role in a movie... if learning to dance better in the process, even if nothing else works out - not even money, is a motivator, then you can go a long way... at least have a career dancing behind until you're too old to shake whatever you're asked to shake.

I also wonder whether these entrepreneurs are happy doing all the bull-shitting hoping to change the world. I mean, if they say they are happy, they may still be bull-shitting. Some bull-shitters genuinely believe their bull-shit although it may not be true. They are people living in illusions. But possibly we all live in illusions of some sort. It's just the illusion that carries us away that matters. Mine seems a little messed up right now, as you must have guessed.

Resale Home Buying - A few Tips

Although I am not a very real-estate savvy person, but I did get some hang of it in the whole process of buying a flat in Pune, and a very long process it indeed was. It was property resale, and from finalizing the property to the final registration, it took about 3 months. Here are some of the key learnings in the whole process, including property search:

• Property search is a tedious task and requires lot of time and patience. The guiding principle is to not compromise on a few key things you want from your home, and be sure of that. Eventually you'll find what you are looking for. (That's what my wife says, and I trust that, as search was mainly her department :P ... I reviewed once we had a shortlist, then we both reviewed many times and we mutually decided).
• If you care about vastu, hire a good vastu consultant whom you can trust and who is not very expensive. A good knowledgeable pandit, for example. Professional consultants are very expensive...
• Don't shy away from brokers, but beware. Brokers control access to a lot of the inventory out there. And you can't do away with them. Focus on the larger battle and don't worry too much about the brokerage expense. It is better to be clear and upfront on it, though. Make sure the broker agrees to the 1% norm even before he/she takes you to show any flat. And make sure the broker looks confident enough to facilitate the whole transaction, once you finalize your target.
• Ask and agree on all other expenses during the transaction and who bears what. I've had the following
• Society NOC charges - borne 50-50 by buyer and seller
• Other charges on paper-work by Society Office - buyer
• Lawyer fees - buyer
• Electricity Bill name change - buyer
• Property Tax name change - buyer
• Stamp Duty & Registration charges - buyer
• Everything else, and I know I'm missing many - buyer :-)
• If it's the first time you are buying a resale home, or any resale real-estate for that matter, better do engage a broker to handle the entire transaction and related formalities. While the agreements can be in English, a lot of documentation in Maharashtra, especially the Index-2 and stuff like that in the registrar office are in Marathi and if you don't get it, you better have someone handle it for you. Make sure the guy is well-versed with the entire process, and also has connections in banks to help you with your loan application.
• Banks need to review a lot of documents for the property to approve the loan. So it is wise to get a list of the required documents from the bank while you are searching properties. And when you are agreeing to buy the property, do check with the seller on the availability of all the documents you need, as per the list.
• Brokers need to be pushed and questioned. It is true you are paying the guy and he needs to do his job. But the brokers have a habit of overcommitting with confidence like you see nowhere else, and forgetting it altogether. Brokers also tend to get unreachable at times when you need them the most. They are frustrating, they are terrible and they don't care. And you have to pay them. So, although it's some sort of a paradox, don't trust them completely, nor rely on them. Figure out what's needed and be on top of everything.
• Keep xerox copies of every damn paper that you come across or create in the process. You will end up with a huge bunch of paper, but keep that safe.
• Lastly, and most sellers don't know this, and most brokers don't tell this during initial agreement between buyer and seller - 1% of the whole deal value (excluding stamp duty & registration fees), i.e., the cash which the seller gets, has to be paid to the mighty Government of India as TDS. This payment has to be done by the buyer and he/she has to deduct the amount from the total cash he/she pays to the seller. The payment can be done from NSDL website. Read the FAQs here. Quite a few important things to note here:
• This applies for properties with value greater than 50 Lacs INR
• The buyer is responsible for making the payment
• The buyer is responsible for downloading the form 16B and handing it over to the seller
• The buyer has to deduct the 1% TDS value and pay only 99% to the seller
• The seller can use the form 16B to claim tax exemptions
• This is a legal / statutory / whatever requirement, and not doing it can get you into trouble
• It is better to bring it up initially, i.e., before agreeing to buy the property, to make sure the seller accounted for it when quoting the price
• It's a recent rule and may not apply a few years later... so check for similar things that apply in your times... this is for readers of this blog a few years later :-)
• And do keep this in mind - you will definitely end up spending more money than you thought or budgeted for... so keep a few lacs handy, over and above whatever all likely costs add up to, while agreeing for the transaction.

All the best!