Whither Bangalore

Is this what Bangalore is becoming ? Yeah, I'm sure the name change will help prevent this...

Really sad. Just 24 years old. Poor husband of hers must be devastated.

Question (un-related?): Do we stop to try and help when we see someone in distress or do we try and 'not get into it' ?

Bengaluru - old bottle old wine new nasha

Bangalore's been renamed, to all kinds of reactions.

Enough said, done and opined on. Just that given the context of current governance, apathy, regressive attitudes in the corridors of the Vidhana Soudha, one is tempted to think that D.Singh and his ilk have firmly established a strong connection between the aforesaid negatives and vernacular. This is not dissimilar to the automatic and unfortunate connection one makes between 'Bihar' and 'backward/casteist/criminal' or 'Kerala' and 'inefficient/strike/anti-entrepreneur'.

By itself, its a sweet name. Useful/necessary ? No way. Was in common usage anyhow - more as an endearment used by long term Bangaloreans (ALL, not just the Kannadigas). Now, as with with most things forced down the gullet, there's a monster in the frame and the word's innocence is lost.

Unfortunately, 'culture' is so often extremely narrowly defined in the symbols (even events are more tradition than culture) rather than an ethos or a set of core collective values (wearing/not wearing jeans cannot be a value, for God's sake). In fact, this itself is a strong (negative) change to Karnataka's culture - which has always seemed assimilating, warm, friendly and multi-ethnic to me in the past. Of course, this is more a political statement than a cultural change - but the absolute lack of voices against a change (a certain percentage would be a natural occurrence) amongst the local glitterati suggests that they're as fearful of a minority-driven backlash as their TN counterparts. Thats definitely unhealthy for what aspires to be a cosmopolitan city (and that is a good aspiration).

Productivity and the time angle

Was chatting with a friend about how time is the only variable thats squeezed commonly for productivity - and one which hits it upper bound very quickly - and its all downhill from there. So much so that a lot of managers actually equate productivity with the hours spent.

Here are some other variables to control....from my limited experience:

a. don't plan too much too soon or design in too much detail too early (XP) - expect changes.
b. allow for learning curves
c. its ok to say it'll take more time.
d. focus on improving skills, collective knowledge in team, dissemination (i dont mean 'seminars')
e. true ownership/buy in. not a mill-malik/mazdoor relationship
f. breathing space. helps solve the big problems real quick. if you cannot breathe, innovation = 0
oh yeah and
g. a team is made of N individuals who are ALL different - different skills, strengths, usefulness, speeds, ways of working. Don't expect (N-1) clones of ur favourite drone. Thats counter productive. The idea is that the team does enough with each guy playing a role. Is everyone in a movie a central character ? Yet the story is impossible without everyone.

This whole thing started cause
- this guy said he was in the UK and found the work atmosphere much more relaxed compared to the donkey-slogs people by and large define work-life as in India
- I have been proceeding at a comfortable pace (for a startup) and producing much more than in my corporate avataars.

Software Lives

IT Survivors - Staying Alive In A Software Job - JAVA J2EE PORTAL

Pretty true point of view - kinda mimics discussions I've had amongst pals. Esp the bit about 'exhaustion'. You HAVE to be able to breathe to think, and to think to create or innovate. Else its all donkey-biz.

Most interestingly - the no of people who seem to agree - obviously a ton are just hanging around in office cause either they have no place to go (scary scenario once u're 40 and no social life/skills) or want to keep a good 'impression' going - have personally faced that.

And MNC/web co offices are not too different from Wipro etc despite what they'd like to believe. This HAS to change if there's to be a more sustainable growth model for the Indian industry.