Going “Home”

December 24, 2008

Ashok India , , , , 1 Comment

Read an interesting article about expat Indians returning to India from United States – and then realize that India now is not the same as the India they left years ago. It’s interesting how people deal with that difference between expectations and reality. One thing that really stood out for me in that article is the following quote from one of the expats who has gone “home”:

In America, you can be comfortably unhappy. In India, you can be uncomfortably happy!

How true! That pretty much sums up my experience of living in these two countries!

Another War With Pakistan? Oh, Please, No!

December 5, 2008

Ashok India , , , , 2 Comments

Yet another terrorist attack in India, killing close to 180 people including Americans, Britons, and Israelis. My heart-felt condolences go out to the families of those killed or injured, and I hope passage of time will bring some comfort to them.

Lot of Indians are obviously upset with Pakistan, for what they think is the direct support provided by certain sections of their military and spy agency (ISI). But as of now, there doesn’t seem to be any direct role played by their civilian government in these attacks.

Going to war would be disastrous for both countries. India is in the middle of a great economic growth phase now and Pakistan on the brink of bankruptcy. The last thing both countries need is another war. I am fairly certain that most people in both countries would rather prefer peace.

For decades, the biggest problem for Pakistan has been the lack of a credible civilian government and democratic institutions like judiciary. Their military and ISI have exploited that situation, often using India as an excuse. Going to war now will only provide yet another opportunity for them to undercut the current civilian government in Pakistan.

Instead of starting a new war, I hope the Indian government uses diplomatic and economic pressure on Pakistan to get something good out of this attack. United States has a much bigger role to play this time (and a lot more to lose) in case of  war between the two rivals. Pakistan will almost certainly move its forces from Afghanistan border if a war breaks out with India, and that will only give breathing room to Taliban there. US would definitely want to avoid that. So I hope India would use that leverage to put pressure on Pakistan to deal with the terrorist organizations on their soil.

As for the masses back home in India, it’s easy to vent out on Pakistan, but what about the Indian government that utterly failed in preventing such attacks? Every time there is a terrorist attack in India, all hell breaks loose for a few days, and then everyone goes back to their lives – until the next attack strikes. We, as a collective nation, do not make sure the government does enough to prevent future attacks. Some say that daily life is such a struggle for most people in India that they don’t really care after a few days and just move on with their lives. I agree with that point, but when are we going to see an end to these terrorist attacks until we make sure we hold our own government responsible for earlier failures?

Life For US-born Kids When Parents Choose To Work In India

November 5, 2008

Ashok India , , , , , , Leave a comment

I came across the following article in San Jose Mercury News today about how some US-born kids are coping with the change when their parents choose to work in India. This includes the expat Indians going back and the increasing numbers of non-Indians moving to India for work.

http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_10898080

As a parent myself with a possibility of going back to India some day, it was very interesting for me to hear the perspective from the kids themselves. What’s more striking is the willingness of some of these kids to just accept that India and US have two very different cultures, and try not judge India based on those differences. Take it all in and focus on the positives – seems to be the best way to deal with it, and I hope these kids will be better off for this tremendous experience.

ISRO’s Chandrayaan-1 Success : Why Are Some People Unhappy?

October 23, 2008

Ashok India, Technology , , , , , 2 Comments

Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has successfully launched Chandrayaan-1 yesterday, their first mission to Moon. This is the first step in a series of goals that will eventually lead to India sending manned spacecrafts to moon by 2015 or so. According to ISRO, the primary objectives of Chandrayaan-1 mission are:

- To place an unmanned spacecraft in an orbit around the moon

- To conduct mineralogical chemical mapping of the lunar surface

- To upgrade the technological base in the country

As an Indian, it makes me extremely proud that India has pulled this off – something only a very few countries managed to do so far. And to do this at an extremely low cost (relatively speaking, of course) – for appr. 80 million USD – is phenomenal.

This is a great technological achievement all right, but not everybody is happy, it seems. There are people who are arguing that India is wasting money on such things when a majority of its population lives in poverty. I personally find that argument funny. India’s problems are far more deep-rooted and far more systematic to be solved by a mere 80 million dollars. To use that as an excuse to prevent scientific research is a disservice to the country – especially when that research has great potential (economic or otherwise) to bring in future benefits.

ISRO has a long and successful history of turning their scientific research into greater benefit for the country. Think of their satellites that provide weather forecasts, think of their satellites that provide television programming to homes, think of the exciting prospect of some of today’s kids ending up as future scientists.  If we had stopped ISRO from spending money on all this research in the past 2,3 decades, Indian population wouldn’t have had all these goodies. And let’s not forget the increased respect India now commands on the international stage because of Chandrayaan-1 success.

I am sure people are more concerned about making it through their day-to-day lives. Someone selling vegetables on the streets obviously won’t be interested in sending a rocket to moon and its benefits. But that should not mean we should stop supporting our science and research.

Scientific research is not something that always produces immediate and tangible benefits. We need to have a long term perspective – with an eye on the track record of the organization in charge of that research. And as far track record is concerned, ISRO had delivered most of the times!

Manmohan Singh Wins Trust Vote…

July 22, 2008

Ashok India, Politics , , Leave a comment

I don’t write about politics usually – especially the kind of ones played out in India, but couldn’t resist today! Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government survives no-confidence vote with a comfortable margin! The motion was sponsored by the Communist parties, in association with BJP and a ton of other regional parties. The reason they gave was their opposition to the proposed nuclear deal between India and US.

Not that I am a great fan of the ruling Congress Party, but this has come as a great relief to me, for two reasons:

  1. The Comminist parties’ bluff has finally been called! These “Chindians” are the most opportunistic political parties in India, whose single-point agenda is to oppose anything to do with US. They don’t mind sleeping with anyone if it serves their selfish purposes, country’s  welfare be damned. And oh yes, did I mention that the word “Chindians” is a cute short version of “Chinese Indians”!?
  2. It removes the political uncertainty for rest of the term for the government – should enable them to push the reforms agenda more aggressively.

Of course, the Congress Party will now have to deal with a new set of blackmailers (their new “friends” in the ever-changing political spectrum in India), but I hope the benefits of this trust vote victory will out-weigh all the negatives, for country’s sake.

Punctuality, What Punctuality?

July 11, 2008

Ashok India, Online Rants , , 2 Comments

One of the nice things about living in San Francisco bay area is the “Indianness” of the place. There are so many Indians here you don’t feel like you are too far away from your home town in India.

With lot of Indians come lot of Indian parties to attend. Parties where most of the folks tend to come late. Almost as a rule, especially if it involves other Indians. For example, if I throw a party and invite 50 Indians to it, I can guarantee that at least 40 of them will come late. Some of them will be way late. Now imagine an American friend as the host, and the same 50 folks as guests – most of the guests will make it on time!

The point here is, we Indians tend to feel much less obligation for punctuality towards other Indians. At least, most of us don’t. We take it for granted. No matter where we live, no matter what we do for a living, it just doesn’t seem to be a trait that comes from within. In fact, we had been to a few parties here where the hosts themselves showed up an hour late. Because they “assumed” everyone would be late anyway!

Lately, this bad habit seems to have caught up even with the Indian celebrities visiting US. We attended a music concert by Devi Sri Prasad today here in Milpitas. He is a famous music director of Telugu movies back in India – made a lot of name for himself with catchy compositions over past couple of years. The show was supposed to start at 7:30pm, but the man himself was nowhere to be seen until 8:45pm. The organizers of the show wouldn’t even bother to tell the audience when it was going to start. They were showing a video clip of Devi Sri Prasad with the punch line, “He is the Man!!”. And we were sitting there, wondering, “Where is the Man!!?”.

When the show finally started, it was a big relief. The songs, the music, and the singers were great and it was nice entertainment. I only wish the “Man” had a little more respect for other people’s time!

Free Inter-bank ATM Use in India – How Nice!

March 11, 2008

Ashok India Leave a comment

The bank customers in India are in for some good times starting next year!

Beginning April 2009, people in India can use any bank’s ATMs for cash withdrawals and balance enquiries for free, instead of having to go to their own bank. This is going to be a great convenience for everyone, and kudos to Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for arm-twisting the banks into making this a reality!

I had been to India recently. New ATM machines have popped up almost everywhere, but it always seemed like there’s scope for a few more. It’s crazy, even more so during rush hours. You’d have to wait in line for 20-25 minutes at some of the ICICI bank ATMs in Hyderabad, and I’m sure it’s the same in most major cities. People still tend to use cash even for large transactions – and hence the rush at the ATMs, especially to withdraw money.

Now, will the same thing happen here in US anytime soon? The banks here reportedly make billions of dollars in ATM charges every year. Given the pressure on them to maintain their profits, in the backdrop of current mortgage mess, it seems unlikely to me. Oh well!

Healthcare in US & India – Which One Is Better?

February 28, 2008

Ashok India, Online Rants Leave a comment

I recently had the chance (more of a misfortune, rather) to experience the state of healthcare in both US and India. The contrast in the whole process between the two countries is fascinating. If I ever find myself in a situation where I need to choose between one of the countries for medical treatment, it would be a very tough choice to make. “Which system is less negative?” would be the question I’d have to ask myself.

One of my family members was diagnosed with some serious health problems recently. He received his initial treatment here in US, and then flew to India for further treatment. When the patient was hospitalized in US, he was taken good care of for most part, although there were a few minor incidents that we wished didn’t happen.

But my biggest gripe about healthcare in US is the cost, especially if the patient is on one of those travelers insurance plans that don’t really cover much for pre-existing conditions. The hospital billed us (and the insurance company) at least 5 times their actual cost — and 10 times over for certain procedures like dialysis. Later on, we came to know that the hospitals routinely do that, because the travelers insurance companies typically pay only 10-15% of the billed amount. They also try to recover at least a portion of their losses from other unpaid bills too. So the hospitals look to cover their bases by billing inflated amounts. People like us get caught in that muddle, and trust me, it’s a very frustrating situation to be in.

Moving onto the scene in India, we took the patient to a reputed hospital in Hyderabad. The doctor made us wait for almost two hours, in spite of the patient’s condition. And when he finally arrived, he spent only five minutes with the patient. Within those five minutes, he answered three personal phone calls on his flashy cellphone, and asked us twice whether we already paid his consultation fees. The whole thing smacked of money-mindedness and I wondered if he was even paying any attention to the patient’s situation.

And the hospitals in India were not as clean, the support staff don’t always have time to tell you much information when you need it, and they expect to be bribed even for things they are supposed to do as part of their jobs. Not much accountability either, for it is next to impossible to do anything if things go wrong due to negligence on the part of hospital or doctors. But the best part is, the treatment costs only a fraction of what it does in US — as little as 5% in our case. So it’s a lot more affordable in India.

One might think it’s not fair to stereotype the healthcare systems in either country. Perhaps there are much better hospitals and doctors in both countries. But for most part, we tend to form our opinions based on our individual experiences. And my experience was anything but pleasant.

All these gripes and whining apart, the patient is doing well and recovering now. I guess that’s the ultimate bottomline!

A Very Interesting Story…

October 26, 2007

Ashok India 4 Comments

I have an interesting story for you today!

The girl is 19 years old. Let’s call her ‘Heroine’. She is from a very famous family. She falls in love with a guy from a not-so-famous family. Let’s call the guy ‘Hero’. They both want to get married. Heroine apparently tells her parents about it, but as you can guess after watching so many Indian movies in your life, they say no.

A year passes by, and the Heroine decides to take matters into her own hands. She runs away from home with the Hero, and they both get married secretly. Their friends plan it to perfection, right from making all wedding arrangements to breaking the news to press in a dramatic fashion. The Hero and Heroine then disappear, nowhere to be seen. Not even the Hero’s parents.

The crowd goes wild. They love such stories, more so because the Heroine happens to be the daughter of their favorite movie star. The dad himself had starred in such roles in so many movies. Almost always, the Hero wins out at the end. So the crowd wants to know if the same thing happens in this case too.

A few days later, our Hero and Heroine show up in a far-away city, with attorneys by their side. The Heroine alleges that her husband now faces threats from her family and that they need security. Specifically, she points her fingers at her babai (dad’s younger brother) as the one threatening her husband.

Now a little bit about this babai. He is known to be cocky. So let’s call him that – Mr. Cocky. Rumor has it that goons belonging to a now-dead faction leader once shaved Mr. Cocky’s head and mustache as punishment for being, well, cocky in a real estate tiff. Anyway, coming back to our story, Cocky is now upset that the Heroine accused him of threatening her husband. He wants to prove his innocence. He goes to the nearest police station to hand over his licensed revolver, obviously to make a point that he no longer poses a threat to the newly weds, because he ain’t got no gun on him! But the press people wouldn’t leave him in peace. They want to know everything from him. So Mr. Cocky talks to the press outside the police station, with the revolver in his hand – a pose that would have made even James Bond proud!

You would have figured by now who this story is all about…err, it’s not really a story, but a “real life movie” currently playing out in Andhra Pradesh, my home state in India. Nobody knows how long this movie will play, or for that matter, what the ending would be. But I do hope that common sense will prevail eventually, and that there would indeed be a happy ending for the “movie”.

As for our Hero, he needs to find a job for himself quickly. Because running away with the girl is the easiest part. He now needs to support her through thick and thin, and hopefully make peace with the Heroine’s very famous family too!

Mess of One’s Own Making

July 19, 2007

Ashok India, Politics Leave a comment

United States is not the only country these days to have made a big mess and then desperately trying to find a face-saving way out of it. Here comes Pakistan!

I have been following the recent events in Pakistan – the Lal Masjid shootout in Islamabad and subsequent suicide attacks by religious fundamentalists on Pakistani army. While I am certainly not rejoicing the loss of innocent lives anywhere, I can’t help but hope it opens the eyes of Pakistani establishment in a way.

For years, Pakistan has funded and armed these religious fundamentalists in Kashmir, under the pretext of providing only moral support. We called them “terrorists” in India, but Pakistan chose to call them “Freedom Fighters” instead. According to media reports, lot of those so called freedom fighters were holed up in Lal Masjid and fighting their own army last week. Now if you look at the attacks on Pakistani army after the Lal Masjid incident, it’s easy to realize what a folly it was of Pakistani establishment to create this mess in the first place.

Call me a daydreamer, but I hope that Indian and Pakistani governments will one day fight this common enemy together!

Golden Quadrilateral — Almost Golden!

March 5, 2007

Ashok India, Travel Leave a comment

I’ve been to India recently, after a looooong gap. Lot of things have changed back home, both good and bad. My favorite among the good things are the brand new highways now connecting the four corners of the country (also called “Golden Quadrilateral”). If you happen to live close to those highways, or use them often for travel, you would really appreciate how much they’ve made life easier for folks. I remember very well, back when I was growing up in India, it used to take at least an hour and half to travel from my hometown to the nearest district headquarters. The same distance now takes less than 45 minutes, and you’d barely get tired! Same thing with travel to a lot of places that people normally go to for work/business/pleasure. It’s just so convenient these days — you can’t help but wonder why it took the government so long to have these roads!!

Anyways, as good as these roads are, I noticed that most of the vehicles still drive right in the middle of the road, rather than in the assigned lane. I used to wonder why they do that…I mean, you have these nice 2-lane roads, with clear markings between the lanes…and they still drive on both lanes! Why?? Well, I didn’t have to wait too long to know why.

We were driving on the highway one day. There was this big truck ahead of us, driving, as usual, down the middle line. And my car driver couldn’t squeeze into the right lane to pass that truck. So he tried all the usual tricks — honking, tailgating, yelling at the truck driver using colorful expletives…everything. But nothing worked. So my driver tried to pass the truck on the left side, which’s not really the smartest thing to do. As we almost pulled ahead, we saw a couple of cows, less than 50 feet away, “resting” in the left lane. The fact that I am sitting before my computer typing this now obviously means my car’s breaks were working extremely well that day!

Even though the roads are nice, there are still issues like this — animals, and in some cases, even people, getting knocked over by the vehicles on these roads. Nobody wanted to be involved in such freak accidents, and so they tend to drive away from the left lane as far as possible. I hope they do something about it…like constructing tall walls separating highways and the houses by the roadside…or something more practical.

Airtel Calling Cards To India

December 31, 2006

Ashok India, Online Rants 3 Comments

Selling calling cards to India has been such a booming business of late, with the Indian population in US growing at a staggering pace in the last few years. There have been so many service providers offering calling cards these days, the latest of whom is Airtel – by Bharti Airtel, a leading telecommunications company in India.

I’ve been using Reliance for calling India and their service has been very good. However, I got lured by the low per-minute price being offered by Airtel as part of their promotional offer (7.9 cents a minute, compared to Reliance’s 12.9 cents). I first opened my account with just 5 dollars, as I only wanted to check out their quality. I managed to sign up on their ridiculously dysfunctional website and even made a few test calls to India. I thought the voice quality was decent; so I decided to bite the bullet and recharged my account with another 50 bucks. And they were offering double talk time on the first recharge, and it wasn’t a bad choice either — or so I thought!

All troubles started after I made my first recharge, which is probably a coincidence. Their 1-800 number to initiate the call wouldn’t work, their “supposedly 24X7″ customer service line always gives busy tone, and their online feedback form won’t let you submit a complaint! Even if you manage to connect a call successfully, it would drop within a few minutes.

Airtel really had nothing in place to offer the service. I think they just rushed into it to meet the holidays deadline without really planning their launch – which I am sure had made a lot of newly signed customers pull their hair out in frustration. I’ve heard similar complaints from a few friends of mine too. I’m now just trying to use up at least my 50 dollars I’d put in for the first recharge – forget about their bonus double talk time – once that is done, I am going back to Reliance. Quality and reliability of service is far more important than lower price. Unfortunately, Airtel’s service had none of these working for them right now.

Tata Steel’s Bid For Glory

October 20, 2006

Ashok Business, India 5 Comments

Finally, Globalization is a 2-way road for Indian companies!

Tata Steel’s $8 billion purchase of its Anglo-Dutch rival Corus would mean a lot to the Indian companies. After years of being at the receiving end of Globalization and fighting to survive and improve their competitiveness, they are slowly beginning to open up. This deal is by far the biggest overseas acquisition by an Indian company and is a sure sign of things to come!

According to this article in Economist, the combined company is likely to be the sixth largest steel manufacturer in the world, catapulting Tata Steel from its current 56th position.

It’d be interesting to see if Mittal would be interested in buying Tata Steel at some point!