Chanda Kochhar

Recently Chandra Kochhar of ICICI has been named the successor of Mr. Kamath. It is wonderful to see a woman finally at the helm of affairs in ICICI. This does not mean that the company was biased towards men and that Ms. Kochhar has broken some glass ceiling. Women have always dominated important positions in this company but being the BOSS means being "the boss"!!!
I have been following the role of women in ICICI since the 90's based on newspaper articles. Any professional achievers award or function definitely featured the "Charlie's Angels" of ICICI - Chanda Kochhar, Kalpana Morparia, Madhabi Puri Buch, Shikha Sharma, Lalita Gupte to name a few.
There were oft small articles in the papers that some 12 odd people are in the reckoning for the post.
I was sure that one of them will head the company sometime in future. When Kalpana Morparia moved to JP Morgan and Chanda Kochhar came on TV regularly to defend ICICI after the Lehman Bros debacle, I was more then sure that she is the ONE!
Finally, the result is out and Chanda Kochhar is the new CEO of ICICI. I was always fascinated by her quite demeanor and the peaceful confidence that she exuded be it in the print media or on TV.
I was watching an interview of hers in a TV channel and was pleased to know that she has a beautiful family comprising of her husband and two kids. I am sure they are proud of Chanda today and the kids definitely understand the sacrifices that they and she had to make till now and will have to make in future. Whatever she is today, a large part of the credit goes to her family who stand by her.
I used to feel that it is difficult to balance career and family but she has proven me wrong.
As a student of Management Studies, I always wanted to become like them in my life. It is a different thing that today motherhood has made me leave my job and be a full time mother to my kid atleast in the first few months. I believe that we must put our 100% in whatever we do in order to be successful - be it a job or role of a mother.
In the near future I will be joining the family business and start learning the ropes. I hope I am able to do justice to the position and role that I will be filling in. Chanda Kochhar is definitely a role model for me.
All the best Chanda!

Matching blood and blood banks

Recently I delivered a baby boy. I had mentioned it in my blog.
I was not sure whether it will be a normal or a C-sec.
And I have a rare blood group. I wanted to keep a pint of matching blood "just in case".
I learnt couple of things about blood bank, cross match and transfusion etc.
1. Hope and pray that you NEVER have to undergo a transfusion.
2. If you have to then you will need blood from a blood bank. All hospitals have their resources for the same.
3. In case of a planned surgery, it makes sense to reserve a pint atleast. It costs hardly anything compared to the cost of sudden need for blood.
4. A small sample is taken from you and is sent to the lab for "cross match". It is not necessary that all banks will have "fresh" matching blood all the time.
5. Cross matching process takes approximately 1 to 2 hours.
6. The blood stock expires in 15-21 days. Blood loses its oxygen content as it grows older. So you should try to procure fresh blood as far as possible.
7. Cross match cannot be done well in advance. The cross match sample also expires in 2 days.
8. Some banks have the provision of reservation but that is also for a short period. You cant have it stocked for you when someone else needs it urgently.
9. You must know your blood group very clearly. Get it checked from different labs at different times (atleast 3 times to be statistically correct :) )
And a pint costs somewhere around Rs. 15 to 1800 (subject to change and can vary from place to place).
The important thing is that you must take keen interest in this process especially when you go for an elective surgery.
Donate blood whenever you can.

Heads have started rolling . ..

Ok so now some ministers are resigning since their "conscience" is asking them to.
Hahaha conscience!!!?@#$% Do they even know the spelling?
The fact is that they know they will be ceremoniously KICKED out if they dont resign on their own.
Good riddance!!!

Salute to the Soldiers

My heartfelt condolences to the families of the soldiers and cops who gave their lives in the Mumbai Massacre.
I hope the departed souls rest in peace.
You are our true heroes.
Because of you, I sit in my cozy room and write these blogs.
Because you protect us each day.
My salute to your fearlessness, courage and sense of duty.

Jai Hind!!!

Late but still . . . . .

I used to listen to a ghazal whose lyrics were somewhat as follows:
Der lagi aane me unko|
shukr hai fir bhi aaye to||
Aas ne dil ka saath na choda|
Waise hum ghabraye to||

When I saw Shivraj Patil's resignation (what did he wear while writing his resignation note - Gucci/ Givenchy/ Giorano ;))
I thought -
Der lagi jaane mein unko|
Shukr hai fir bhi Gaye to||

Though he is a miniscule non-existent thing, but each time I heard or read his comments, statements, I just hoped he gets kicked out of the government.

Look at Madeliene Albright and look at this ex-hommie of ours. I remember he visited that Gujarat 2008 blast site in peak monsoon wearing all white with white shoes and palms folded one over the other in front of him as though he is in a prayer meeting.

Countries like Spain and Argentina also have strong female leaders who are miles better then this dud.

I hope he lives a long life on the sidelines of abject anonymity and each of these terror deaths haunt him and make him gaunt. Words like failure, weak, useless etc are understatements for him. There is actually no word in our English dictionary to describe this "thing".

Mumbai Mayhem 26/11

It was a usual week night for me.
Now my schedule revolves around our new born son's need to feed and change.
I spent the day watching Ind vs Eng ODI in Cuttack and then surfed to Raising Helen.
The movie had sub titles so I could watch it without any sound.
12 in the night my best friend smsd me - Have you seen the news? I called her - What news? She said firing in South Mumbai - Leopold and all.
Through the news channels I came to know about the mayhem that was ensuing.
I woke my husband and told him what is happening. His office is in South Mumbai.
It is shocking to see the events over the entire night while feeding and changing diapers.
One moment you see the ATS chief live on TV and next moment it is flashed that he has become a "shahid". Next day a cousin mentions about Karamvir Kang and his loss. Soon we come to know that he was a batchmate of one of our brother in law and some acquaintances' cousin. Suddenly these are not nameless people but people you know somehow.
What are we headed for? How many more lives have to be slaughtered before the government does something constructive? We need concrete plans and swift execution not the usual speeches that we have been seeing of Manmohan Singh and Shivraj Patil.
If we still dont wake up then many more Taj, Oberoi, Nariman House will happen and I dread to say that it could be any of us.
Wake up India!!!

Our Newborn

On 13th of November 2008, I and my husband were blessed with a baby boy.
It has been one of the most surreal experience for us and the best gift ever from God.
Life has changed for good for the both of us. :)
Thank you God :)

Dada - The End of a Saga

Today was the last day of the Nagpur Test match between India and Australia. Why I am mentioning it is because it also happens to be the last day in Saurav Ganguly's Test career for Team India. And what a remarkable send off by the team. A victory over Australia! The whole world will remember that Saurav Ganguly retired on a winning note when the Indian team wrested the Airtel Border Gavaskar Trophy from reigning world champions - Australia.
It has been one long journey for the Boy from Behala.
I happened to stay a few streets away in Behala in late 2000 for few months. Dada's house was slightly away but the whole area was known as the place where Saurav Ganguly lives.
What is remarkable about this successful captain and cricketer of India is that he brought out the aggression in the team and its members. Yes, it is a gentleman's game but does it seem so when the Aussies or the Proteases play.
Look at the swagger and the bullying attitude of the Aussies. Today they are so hurt and disoriented by the Indian attitude of fighting back that happened after Monkeygate in Australia is palpable from the fact that even now people like Gilly, Ponting and Symmo are talking about it. I am sure they are not able to forget it and remember the incident each night they go to sleep. :) Somewhere Saurav is responsible for making the team fight back and not take things lying down. Captains should not be like the decent front bencher school boy who is always in the teacher's good books but a wily fellow who works with and for the team and ensures that they win. Dhoni also is showing lot of promise in these lines.
The TV channels will be showing his bare chested t-shirt dance in Lords for sometime now and then everything will die down but the legend called Prince of Calcutta will live on in the minds and hearts of Indian cricket lovers for a long time.
I wish him all the very best for his future and hope he has a great post-cricket life both professionally as well as a family man.

TMT vs BEST

Today politics rules over every conceivable idea or initiative in India.
The city of Thane has its own city bus service called TMT. Mumbai has a similar service called BEST. As the name suggests, it is one of the BEST services in India. The quality of bus, maintenance, punctuality, service everything is worth appreciating. TMT fares poorly in all these parameters.
Recently, a good initiative was taken and a bus service of BEST was started to connect Thane and Borivili (central and western suburbs). The price of the ticket is reported to be Rs. 15 compared to Rs. 500 that you might shell out if you came by a cab (personal experience). And the buses will ply at regular intervals from dawn to dusk.
TMT might have 1001 reasons why its services are poor compared to BEST but the bottom line is that the BEST service is going to be helpful for the common man. Yesterday there was a bus and auto strike but I am sure they also know that the BEST service is the BEST move.
How long should such lame services be given shelter and protection? One might argue that the average driver or conductor of TMT is not responsible for its plight and hence their interests should be protected but what about Commuter's Interest?
Such innovative and lateral initiatives should be promoted further instead of letting TMT and autos to resort to strikes etc. This is what brings out the competitive streak and ensures that government services shrug their laid back attitude and perform.
Hail BEST!!!
See what today's Mumbai Mirror has written on the same issue.
"Commuters make the BEST of new Thane-Borivli route" and "What’s wrong with the TMT"

How Barack Obama has become the 44th Prez of USA

This is an interesting picture from Rediff.com dated. 05.11.2008.
Have a look.

Original source of the picture: Click Here

Sadhvi Pragya's Conversation and Indian Media

Yesterday I was surfing through various channels trying to understand where the market is whirring to. I happened to see a news item in couple of staple news channels about some conversation between Sadhvi Pragya and an accomplice or whatever one Mr. Ramji which has been released by the police or ATS.
First of all it was not a recorded audio tape. It was a script which was shown on the screen and read out by a male and female voice.
The funniest thing is after 5 minutes when I shifted to another channel, the same news was being aired but the script has changed. The sequence of conversation has changed.
I really dont know how far you can trust these channels and their reports and biases.
My purpose of writing this is not as a support or criticism of what the Sadhvi has or hasn't done rather it is about the type and quality of report that are being fed to us by our "responsible" media and fourth estate.

House Interior Decoration - The DIY Guide from a Beginner - Our Experience

The global economic changes in the recent days have put our finances in doldrums. The national scenario is also nothing much to talk about especially with high inflation rate and the faltering stock market. The housing projects also were commanding sky high prices in the metros till the recent past. Interest rates of home loans have also soared in the last 3-4 years. Bottomline - everything has become expensive.

You have bought a house with your hard earned money and in case you have taken it on floating loan then you are paying high EMIs on the same. Most of the home owners in various classes of cities are first time buyers and till recently have been staying in a rented accommodation. Having ones own house gives them the dual benefit of creating an Asset as well as saving on Income Tax as per Indian IT Act both for the principal and interest part of the loan. On the other side staying in a rented accommodation gives a sense of being unplanned and intermittent. We take the benefit of HRA in our IT calculation for the rent that we pay to the landlord. If finances permit then it makes sense to build ones own immovable property.

These first timers would prefer to shift to their newly acquired houses as soon as they get possession. But it is easier said then done. An apartment is not like a car. You dont take the keys and ride away immediately. What you get is a basic house where you have to do up the interiors as per your requirement and means to make it livable. Nothing gets done overnight and everything comes at a price.

WHAT ARE YOUR OPTIONS?

You can either buy readymade furniture and put them in place to start living in the house or you can get a professionals like carpenter, plumber and electrician to do up the furnitures and fixtures. But how do you coordinate the work and ensure that everything gets done in a synchronized manner. Most people opt for an interior decorator to do up their houses. They are now available everywhere a dime to dozen. Hiring an interior decorator is no longer the forte of rich people. They are available in all sizes and shapes. :)

The question now is to hire an interior decorator or do it yourself. Both have pros and cons. If you and your spouse are working professionals then you wont have the time to check on the details in day to day life. You wont have any other option other then buying ready made furniture or hiring an interior decorator to do the job. You also might not find readymade stuff suitable for your need or dimension.

What an interior decorator does for you is gives you a proposed plan of what furniture and fixtures to be put in your flat, arrange for carpenters, electricians and then getting the job done. But they charge atleast 10% of the total interior decoration project cost which is the sum of material and labor. They have great glossy ideas but dont forget that they work with your money. Saving on your costs and at the same time ensuring quality is the last thing in their minds. They will push for all contemporary design though they might become obsolete in a year or two's time.

What I recommend to people who are conscious about how much they spend and what they get for their money is to DIY. Do it yourself. It is not as difficult as it might sound. And yes, it is a learning experience.

BUT HOW DO YOU GO ABOUT IT?

First of all you need to be a little PC and numbers savvy. Go out and get a chequered page notebook or a graph book, couple of pencils, erasers and ruler. (Like what we used to do maths in early school and do draw graphs in the mathematics class) Googling on the net will get you many conversion tools which you can use to convert millimeters, centimeters, foot, inches etc. Your builder will normally give the dimensions of your apartment/ flat in square foot. The carpenters generally do their work in millimeters. Hence the need for robust conversion.

Make a list of all the furnitures that you would need in your house. Prioritize the need of each of them in terms of Absolutely Necessary, Necessary but at a later date, Desired but not mandatory. This will ensure that you focus on the fundamental stuff and not divert your energy and resources to insignificant things like the phone stand or magazine rack.

Make a list of which furniture will be located in which room. Simultaneously, the color of the paint on the walls should also be finalized. You can check the online shade catalogue of paints on the sites of Asian Paints etc. The color of the furniture will need to be coordinated with that of the paint so that it is soothing for the occupants of the room.

You can segregate furnitures in terms of readymade and custom made. Items like beds, sofa, dining table set can be bought outright whereas cupboards might need to be customized.

Good quality readymade furnitures are available in branded stores in every town catering to various price structures. These again can be searched through the websites advertised in the print advertisements of the stores. Some of the well known ones are @Home, Style Spa, Durian etc. Then visit the stores. It saves your precious time.

Draw the layout your room in your graph book (to scale) and then place each of the furniture as per their dimensions (again to scale). This will give you an idea of how much free space will be available to you. It will also ensure that you are not cramping your room. For example a queen bed might fit adequately in your room rather then a king sized one.

Now you can draw the layout of your customized furnitures as per their dimensions. This will help you in roughly estimating the material requirement. Many furniture stores do job work as per your layout. Go around and check couple of them. Show them your drawing. Ask them how much they would charge and what material would they use. How much time would they need to complete the job? Ask for a segregation of the material and labor cost. Once you have checked atleast 4-5 shops then Compare your notes. You will get a fair idea of how and where to get the job done. You should also visit the plywood/ laminate/ veneer stores to understand the rate of materials as well as hardware stores for the fixtures like handles and hinges. The exposure to the readymade furniture stores will give you an insight of how your customized furniture will be designed and integrated.

There are various grades and rates of plywood (known and unknown brands), laminates and veneers. Go out and check. You will be surprised at the range of material available out there.

The layout of the furniture will help you decide the location of lights and fans. This can then be done through an electrician.

Do it yourself will definitely prove cheaper and also give you a sense of satisfaction and fulfillment. It will also help you get your house ready much faster.

What is in fashion is definitely desired but are we building a model or a place that we can call home and love to return each evening after a hard day's work.

I have taken the help of a decorator for our house but lot of the things mentioned above have been done by me personally and I write from my experience. If you wish to share your views or ask questions, please leave a comment and I will revert back to you.

Gold for a billion!!! Bravo Bindra!

The year is 2008 A.D. Atlast an INDIVIDUAL OLYMPIC GOLD for India, a country that boasts one of the oldest civilization as well as SECOND LARGEST population in the world.
I was watching the opening ceremony of Beijing Olympics 2008 on our National TV channel DD. There were so many countries participating in the this mother of all sports event (10000+ athletes and sportsmen from more then 80 countries). Many of you will need the help Google to locate some of these countries.
When the Indian team entered the Birds Nest arena, I was pondering that what is it that holds back country like ours from winning medals - Gold, Silver and Bronze in the Olympics. Look at this years' medals tally till date. Countries like Slovakia, Zimbabwe, Algeria, Vietnam, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan feature in the tally. (Ok now even India does thanks to our Golden Boy Abhinav Bindra) Does our country have such dearth of talent that we cannot produce winners? Maybe it is not dearth of talent but availability of facilities as well as state support and interest to excel. One should look at the seriousness of China in winning medals. If there is WILL, then it is POSSIBLE.
We do not win in sports like Soccer, Swimming, Basketball, Tennis or Boxing where one might argue that superior diet and physical features make a lot of difference but what about sports like Table Tennis, Archery, and yes Shooting. These require skills which I dont think are country or creed dependent. But after reading today's Times of India and learning the amount of money spent by Bindra and his father I realize that it is not just about SKILL but MONEY too. And lots of it is required for things like coaching, kits, diet, fitness etc.
I dont think our country will have more of Bindra's and hence till the country (center as well as state governments) really means serious business while preparing for Olympics we will still remain behind countries like maybe even Cayman Islands in the medals tally in the years to come. The plight of sports in our country is hopeless and pathetic.
But for this year thanks to the entrepreneurial activities of "King of a Singh father" his young son Abhinav Bindra won the FIRST ever INDIVIDUAL GOLD MEDAL in Olympics for India. It is a great personal as well as national achievement for him and all credits should ONLY go to him and his proud parents as well as his German coach Frau. Buhlmann.
Congratulations Abhinav!!! Congratulations to Mrs. and Dr. Bindra too.

India's N-deal and the ensuing political crisis

I consider myself apolitical and do not take much interest in the Indian political scenario. My husband does. He has a keen interest, follows events regularly and keeps himself updated. I simply read about the general stuff like who are the main ministers, the party(ies) in power, recent policy changes etc. so that I don't look like a dork in a gathering :).
I was hearing a lot about the nuke deal on TV. Initially, I did not give it a thought. There are so many better things to do in life rather then nuclear science, an issue which is neither my forte nor within my realms. Recently I saw the political scenario becoming highly intense. The reason - PM wants to go ahead with the N-deal and the Left parties are against it. That is when I sat back and thought - what is this all about? I realized that average people were unaware of the nitty gritties of the deal. I asked my husband what it is all about.
In very layman's terms we are signing this deal so that in another 20 odd years 4-5% of our electricity will be generated through nuclear fuel. If you observed the level of debate in the parliament prior to the trust vote you will be able to gauge the depth at which our chosen leaders understand this deal.
Only time will tell what this deal will do for India but at the moment some people are making hay (till the sun shines) :)
I believe the media could have played a much more constructive role by educating the masses about the Hyde Act, 123 and the deal on the whole. Even one of our budding young politician is not aware what IAEA stands for (forget the nitty gritties of the deal :) )To know more, visit IAEA.org

Summer of 2008 - Arushi and Hemraj

The summer of 2008 will be etched in my mind for a long time to come for various reasons. One of them is the much hyped Arushi-Hemraj murder case (henceforth referred to as A-H case) of Noida. No, it the hype is not Noida coz' I think it one place that is most notorious place for murder, rape and all illegal activities ever reported on Indian TV. The hype and interest is due to the way the whole case was handled both by our ever enthusiastic media and the quintessential Indian Police.
(I remember during my childhood days; not that I am ancient now :), most Hindi Bollywood films would show the entry of police with their sirens and jeeps only after the hero has single-handedly vanquished the villains.)
Due to being incapacitated by a minor health condition, I got the luxury of staying in bed and all I could do was catch every bit of news on TV channels apart from Nat Geo and Animal Planet. The A-H case caught my fancy due to the murder of a young girl just blooming into her teens. As usual the media hounds swooped in on the crime site maybe before the police too. Each move of the police was aired on TV with the common expression "BREAKING NEWS!!!"
What was striking is how the police never found Hemraj's body on the first day itself? The way the crime site was handled is least discussed the better. The CSI producers would die instantly on watching the same. It was also appalling to see how the police tried to pry open the Talwar's garage door with a kitchen appliance. No doubt so many people commit crimes in India knowing that with such primitive forensics and winding court cases most would get away easily in this lifetime.
The SSP of Meerut - Gurdarshan Singh provided rest of the fodder for the media and the viewers with first talking about Nidhi. Not once or twice but thrice!!! Nidhi???!!! Who? Well he meant Arushi but did not remember the name :). Then his press statements were straight out of Ekta Kapoor's serial. The father was already labeled as the murderer. No murder weapon, witness or proof but case solved. According to the SSP he found his daughter in an "objectionable" but not "compromising" position. What does THAT mean? How can the police reach to such a conclusion without any evidence? The case was further made juicy with the hint that the doctor was having an illicit affair with a co-doctor. Dr. Talwar spent 50 odd days in Dasna jail - thanks to the competent UP police, CBI and our emancipated media. (Christian Amanpour is the real trend setter) I think the shooting TRP of A-H case was only matched by IPL matches.
The case was handed to CBI, thanks to the intervention of certain politicians and public outrage. They have also taken their time, the case is still remains unsolved conventionally though a lot has been proven based on advanced scientific tests. But thankfully the poor father is out of jail and can grieve the death of his loving daughter with his family provided the media lets him be. :)
There are lot of debates on TV whether police or media are to blame for the mishandling of the case, for Dr. Talwar's extended stay in jail etc. The media is shouting hoarse to prove that they have done a good social deed instead of accepting that they are equally to blame for sensationalizing the case and giving their own opinion without any proven basis.
Yes, the media today plays a constructive role in many instances but they should act more responsibly in such cases. The competition of channels to outdo each other can be harmful for people like Dr. Talwar. And the media should act with some amount of compassion for the affected people instead of thrusting their microphones in their faces and asking them how they feel.
As far as the police is concerned; there is serious dearth of forensics in solving present day crimes. The images of crime scene investigation in the Nithari case is also vivid in my mind. The police personnel also need to understand that their each comment is viewed under a magnifying lens. Gurdarshan Singh's comments on Dr. Talwar were irresponsible and cheap. Channels went on to air special episodes on how kids feel about their fathers etc. Young minds are getting nurtured. We have certain obligations while exposing them to radical views.
I hope the case gets solved in the near future and most importantly the souls of Arushi and Hemraj rest in peace. A young dream is lost and maybe the sole earning member of a family too.

Rafa rules Wimbly 2008, Fedex goes off track

Last week I got the chance to watch the mind blowing Men's Singles final at Wimbledon. Rafael Nadal deserved to win the title. I had initially expected it to be over in straight sets especially the way Rafa was making Fedex fly all over the court. But then Fedex being Fedex clawed back into the game. The scores spell out the events - 6-4 6-4 6-7(5) 6-7(8) 9-7. (You can see the scores of the finals of Gentlemen's Singles since 1877. Click here)
Federer never looked in control of the game though there were frequent glimpses of his master strokes. I think his first serves let him down on a crucial day. But Federer has class and his game and mannerisms remind me of Stefan Edberg in his hey days. His outfits, conduct on court and his back hand are simply awesome.
But this year seems like it belongs to Spain. The Euro Cup win was also a thriller. Lets see if they have some surprises for us in Beijing.