What I Learned

A meeting yesterday got me thinking about value systems we all have. I think the most important thing that separates individuals is their value system, leading to their thought process about what is right or wrong. Major part of the value system is developed during childhood by observing parents, and from their teachings. I am so grateful to my parents for having given us siblings following values. 1.      Joy of reading – my father is a voracious reader. We get about 8 newspapers at home daily. Aa a child, I saw him reading many books in Gujarati, Marathi, Hindi and English. He made sure we had enough books available for us to dive into. That developed the interest for reading classy stuff for us children. I think, this is the best legacy my father has given us and we are trying to pass it on to the next generation of our family. 2.     Whatever you do, do it openly – if you can’t openly do something, avoid it by all means. This ensures good night’s sleep for us as a famil

Some of this may sound repetitive but is increasingly relevant with each passing day. Considering the way, the Internet is evolving and engulfing various aspects of life, soon we may have one gigantic network, and any screen for all of the following, and more… ·        Information (the Web) ·        Communication (phone, email, chat, instant messaging - Whatsapp) ·        Entertainment and media (Videos, TV, Movies, Media, Social Media) ·        Education (information and knowledge as text, images, video and audio) ·        Commerce (Catalogs, Banking, payments) ·        Maps and Navigation (GIS, GPS, Uber and Ola) ·        Tourism and hospitality (Trip Advisor, Yelp, AirBnB!) ·        Healthcare (Telemedicine) ·        eGovernance ·        Devices (Mobile, Cars, and the Internet of Things – Networld!) ·        … and the list is growing … all this intertwined, hosted & operated from innumerable computers spread across the globe (cloud) that we

After a month in the USA across 9 states, 5 major cities and travel through various media except the space; below are some learnings/observations. 1.        Nothing much changes if your phone is not reachable for a whole month without international roaming This realization is a big liberating factor for me, who always thought I must always be reachable to family, customers, colleagues and friends. But, if you inform them that you won’t be reachable on phone for instant talk while being reachable on other channels like email and Whatsapp, most didn’t bother us and some contacted on data channels after failed attempts to call. This encourages me to take a 10 day Vipassana course with no contact with external world!      2.        If you can avoid media, distractions and clutter, there is enough time for everything we want to do It was surprising to see how much time one has if there are no distractions. Another motivating factor to pursue what one wants to do, by avoi

We know dictionaries and thesaurus tell us synonyms. How do you find synonyms for phrases in different languages? Here is my attempt to translate some of those with my limited knowledge of a few languages. जिसकी लाठि, उसकी भैंस = Might is Right मेरा क्या? = What is in it for me? अंत भला तो सब भला = All is well that ends well! जिंदगी और मौत का सवाल = To be or not to be; that's the question! उथळ पाण्याला खळखळाट फार = empty vessels make more noise दिसतं तसं नसतं, म्हणुन जग फसतं = Looks are deceptive! नाचता येईना, म्हणे अंगण वाकडे = नाच न जाने, आंगन टेढा दुरुन डोंगर साजरे= दुर के ढोल सुहावने  अंधो मे काना राजा = वासरात लंगडी गाय વેહલા સુવે, વેહલા ઉઠે વીર, બળ, બુધ્ધી, ને ધન વધે, સુખમા રહે શરીર = Early to bed, Early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise बुंद, बुंद से सागर बनता है = थेंबे, थेंबे तळे साचे = કાકરે કાકરે પાળ બંધાય

This may sound a bit far-fetched and hence interesting to think about. Aadhaar, is the unique ID about 1 billion Indians have (970,327,158 to be precise, on Jan 31, 2016 – about 1/7 or 14% of the global population!). How about making Aadhaar a global ID solution for the whole or part of the world? If majority of the world can use Facebook for social sharing and Gmail for email, why not a global Indian solution for unique ID? Why reinvent the wheel when there is something already working successfully for 1B people!? If Europe has a common currency and monitory system, why not a common ID system for a few countries? Technically, it is not a proof of citizenship anyway. It is only an ID. To start with, it could be a unique ID solution for the neighboring south Asian countries like Nepal, Bhutan, Shri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan, followed by Southeast Asian region and then countries in Africa. It may easily cover about half the global population in next decade before

Attached are photographs of a magnificent ancient Bawadi (stepwell) situated at Vela (Harishchandra) about 12 KMs from the zero mile, Nagpur. The Bawadi still has good clean water that is being used by the Church nearby. The structure is ill maintained like most other ancient structures in India and needs immediate attention from the Archaeological survey of India. We in India are so blessed by our forefathers to have these stepwells! It will be foolish of our generation to let these disappear without protection and care. All these stepwells should be declared heritage sites and protected with participation from local governments. It may be a good option to involve some corporates to augment resources for the maintenance of the historically and culturally important water bodies in these times of water scarcity. At a broader level, our whole country has thousands of such ancient monuments from Mahakali caves in Mumbai to Markanda in Vidarbh to Laksh

While thinking about improving processes and practices in healthcare industry, it struck to me that prevention is better than cure! :-) leading to thinking about all the things that help us prevent ill health. Below are a few examples.      ·        Bicycle and cycle rickshaws - promote good health, environment friendly and saves foreign exchange spent in importing petrol      ·        Sports facilities and sports goods - promote good health, team work and social harmony      ·        Gyms and gym equipment - promote good health      ·        Fruit juices - help maintain good health and recover from illness      ·        Yoga and Ayurveda These are a few and there are more such things that boost health. Many countries offer tax incentives for renewable energy like solar power as it is environment friendly. We also levy higher taxes on liquor and cigarettes as these are harmful for health. By the same logic, shouldn’t we encourage consumption of the items mentioned

·         I want to close my bank account with ICICI bank ·         I need to personally approach the clerk at the branch which I need with a request ·         My debit card and cheque book is promptly destroyed by the bank clerk, to close the account ·         He realizes that my bank account is linked to my demat account with them. So to close my bank account, I must close the demat account first. I promptly get the form to close the demat account ·         They see some stocks in my demat account which I must either sell or transfer before closing it ·         I request them to transfer it to another demat account I have with them jointly with my wife. ·         They can’t do that because the origin account is in my name while the destination account is a joint account, though I am the first holder in both accounts and I am standing in front of them requesting the transfer. This means I can’t transfer my own shares from one account to another in spite of requesting t