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It was around 10 or 11 am in the morning. I was zipping through channels and there in CNBC came the Breaking News of the day - Ramalinga Raju resigned as the chairman of Satyam Computers. I did not own shares of Satyam but I immediately logged into my stock broking portal to check my portfolio and then assess which stocks of mine will take the hit. I decided against exiting my stocks though I saw the decline of shares in the short term. Being a retail investor, my exposure to stocks was limited. But what about those who had direct exposure to Satyam stocks - Fidelity, Aberdeen those investors who till now believed Satyam was a frontrunner of the IT stocks in NSE and BSE. This is a fundamental issue of trust and faith which has been shaken. I remember the days when Satyam would rally the IT stocks after a down trend. 3% operating margin is mind boggling and Raju mentioning that no one except him knew about this is bull shit. When VPs and Head of Practice/Vertical manage the P/L for the ...

This December, I spent a lot of time taking care of my beloved ones - in the process I went to quiet a few movies. My travel to Bangalore and back also provided me more free time to read, watch movies, know co travelers and more importantly reflect on the year that just went by. I saw four movies in this timespan - Vaaranam Aaayiram, Boiler Room, Abhiyum Naanum and Death Race. I could not help noticing that all of these movies focussed on family sentiments. All these movies focus on the relationship between a Father and his son/daughter. Vaaranam Aaayiram is a classic that lets the son get nostalgic about his father and the wonderful learnings imparted to him. I watched it twice and loved the sentiments and the freshness of the movie. Boiler Room is an English flick where a Son who is a college dropout and successful in his business (runs a casino in the backyard), tries to shun his business to please his Dad who is a Judge and becomes an investment banker with a tier 2 company. Over ...

I reached Bangalore yesterday - a day train starting 7 am from Chennai reaching 12.30 in Bangalore. The journey was relatively better - My magazines and a bit of sleep kept me occupied. I reached the office around 2pm. After work around 10 pm, went to Peecos with Nevin and Arun to sip beer and also had dosas, chicken curry.. Yumm.. Arun and Nevin will also vuch for the chilly pork... good break from work... loads of things to accomplish in the next few days - manage the site visit, the personal chores that I had to complete ...all those chintas stayed away and just had the beer to sip and rag Nevin. Good fun...hhhhh...Nevin did enjoy too... or did he? In the meanwhile we were still relishing India's victory in the test match..good to have hit all those runs.. Today started late... A 10 am breakfast, 2pm lunch and in between car service... God, I need to start my work...when am I going to start...I think I will start right now...

The Day started in a hurry. In a rush to Sankara Nethralaya, Nitya and I were hurrying to get into the car. Took a good 45 minutes to reach Sankara Nethralaya - Michelle's eyes had to be dilated every 15 minutes. After nearly waiting in a special room for new borns, we were ready to meet the doctor. The trip back had interesting stopovers at ABN AMRO (now RBS) and later at Adyar Bakery. Another dull day @ work... :) dull days are needed too...

Here is my opportunity to relive memory - starting with school - that is most that I could remember As much as I could remember or hear from my Mom - I stood first in my lower kindergarten with eleven others and then started the slide - I remember I was struggling to read Hindi. Till around 2nd std, I would have stood on the right side of the bell curve with the minimum on the right. I used to not miss a single opportunity to get out and play with my neighbours. There used to be kids of all sizes there - there was one playground then which used to fit whatever game we played based on someone's interest - Football, Cricket, Hockey with sticks, Badminton, Seven Stones Mom started sending me for tuitions to an Aunty (Shibu and Sheeba's Mother - thats how I remember her). I learnt the basics there and had my tuitions for an year or two. Then I started getting to the other side of the bell curve. I loved the Maths period where I would frequently try to display my brilliance. English...

It is Dec 11, 2008.The first test match starts in Chennai. The Englishmen have shown extreme courage to come back to India to resume the Test series. It was a boring first session - No wickets nor a hurry to score runs. Iam bored to death. I take Joshua for short walks down the street. I repeat this thrice with a gap of 30 mins -45 mins. He is enjoying these walks - Don't know what goes through him when he walks with me. He definitely points out to the chocolates in the shop asking for those. He is a bit cranky today. Michelle is lying peacefully in her den (read pram). Nitya has almost assumed a full time role of a breast feeder. Michelle seems to be hungry all the time. We venture out for lunch trying to break the uneasy calm that is dicturbing me. We reach a restaurant in Adyar "Bharani" for afternoon meals. Yummy food - Joshua, Nitya and I savour the tasty and rich veg food served in Bharani. I reach Office around 1.30 'ish. Surprised that a colleague in Chennai h...

Thomas Friedman will be proved more correct in the coming years. The world remain flat. All theories of Competitive Advantage and Acquired Advantage will prove more correct in the coming days. China after establishing its supremacy in the Manufacturing industry will look towards the Service Economy. India and Philippines will continue their success with the BPO industry. Taiwan, the base of all computer hardware and peripherals will face more competition. I will be surprised if the Japanese do not bounce back to catch up with the rest of the ASIAN tigers and India. Koreans and Japanese have established their supremacy in the Auto and Consumer Durables Industry, they still need to compete with the dumping from China. That just covers Asia. The Czech Republic and Hungary will soon replace the Ireland and the Amsterdam, Netherlands as the hot beds for the BPO industry. So what will the outsourcing countries like the US, Canada and UK do to prevent unemployment and underemployment? These ...