Recent visit by the US Defense secretary Robert Gates has given some signs that are alarming to say the least.
He has repeatedly stated to the press that 'India cannot be expected to show restraint in face of yet another attack similar to that of 26/11'.
This single statement is actually thought provoking. It could be construed as
i. US agreeing to Indian viewpoint on pressuring Pakistan to act on 26/11 perpetrators and the terrorists on their soil in general.
ii. Or like journalists suggest, is the US pressing Pakistan to act on Af-Pak border using India as a threat?
iii. Or is the US playing it smart and setting up ground for India to attack Pakistan on its behalf?
If the US is losing its hope on Pakistan's ability to reign in the terrorists, why is it going around giving away twelve drones to the PAF?
It is not like the US is having great success in either IRAQ or Afghanistan with the mightiest and technologically the most advanced fighting forces in the world, for it to comment on Pakistan, a third world country that's barely standing on its feet with its own problems.
As for US just using India as a threat to force Pakistan to act, Pakistanis could be temperamental, but they are no fools. Cunning as a fox, they will not hesitate run into China's wide open arms should US play tough. Bad news US. I, personally think that may not work that well.
Even if the Indian policy makers decide to wage a war on Pakistan when god forbid another terrorist strike happens, with US's tacit approval, it would only spell disaster. China will be quick to blame US for encouraging India and start providing arms to Pakistan free. Worse, it might start exerting pressure on eastern borders to distract India. If the NATO countries rally behind India, it won't be long before Iran, North Korea , Venezuela and a few vocally anti american countries to join the fray to support China's hands! What could taste better than the joining the world's emerging super power in challenging the might of the ageing super power? A golden opportunity for forging a super alliance and changing the axis of world powers. A perfect recipe for WW3.
In all of it, the losers are India and Pakistan.
27 January 2010
20 January 2010
I hate Corporate Rewards
I hate corporate rewards. Phew! I finally got it off my chest! Its pointless at best. I just do not see the need for an awards ritual where an employee is awarded for 'good performance' and other such half a dozen categories in an organization that is mid sized.
The perceived benefits of rewards are
i. Employee motivation
ii. Recognition
Personally, a reward is the last thing I need to motivate myself. What is needed is faith and belief of the customer and encouragement from your manager and sound support of your team that stands by you every step.
An award is not going to compensate for any of the above.
Recognition
An employee is recognized as a star performer through appraisals that directly result in promotions and other monetary benefits. Nothing is more satisfactory than this. A quiet appraisal of performance with positive inputs to improvement go longer than a piece of plastic or metal donning my shelf. Recognition by senior management is another myth. These rewards ceremonies are conducted each quarter or even each month that its become pointless to reward the same person each time for the best performance. Eventually the system becomes a round robin and everyone knows that this is just a placebo and just don't care anymore.
Senior management recognizing the employee by virtue of having won an award from their own hands is also a bit far fetched. When it comes to business, word of mouth and trust plays a far more significant role than, again, the number of plastics that I have won!
Truly star performers do not seek nor do they benefit from limelight.
EDIT: Pursuant to this post, I received a call from a relative that he won an all India award for excellence in performance and he was one of the three to have won the award! Well, thats awesome! Thats recognition and it gets all the ticks in my above checklist. However, compare this with typical IT projects where each team of 5 or 50 gets to award a person for excellence every quarter or month!! Now the latter is what I hate!
The perceived benefits of rewards are
i. Employee motivation
ii. Recognition
Personally, a reward is the last thing I need to motivate myself. What is needed is faith and belief of the customer and encouragement from your manager and sound support of your team that stands by you every step.
An award is not going to compensate for any of the above.
Recognition
An employee is recognized as a star performer through appraisals that directly result in promotions and other monetary benefits. Nothing is more satisfactory than this. A quiet appraisal of performance with positive inputs to improvement go longer than a piece of plastic or metal donning my shelf. Recognition by senior management is another myth. These rewards ceremonies are conducted each quarter or even each month that its become pointless to reward the same person each time for the best performance. Eventually the system becomes a round robin and everyone knows that this is just a placebo and just don't care anymore.
Senior management recognizing the employee by virtue of having won an award from their own hands is also a bit far fetched. When it comes to business, word of mouth and trust plays a far more significant role than, again, the number of plastics that I have won!
Truly star performers do not seek nor do they benefit from limelight.
EDIT: Pursuant to this post, I received a call from a relative that he won an all India award for excellence in performance and he was one of the three to have won the award! Well, thats awesome! Thats recognition and it gets all the ticks in my above checklist. However, compare this with typical IT projects where each team of 5 or 50 gets to award a person for excellence every quarter or month!! Now the latter is what I hate!
19 January 2010
Dream of a teacher!
Most of my dreams are unrealistic and have illogical stories and concepts in them! Take for instance yesterday. I dreamed of being invited to my high school by none other than my most favourite teacher in my life! Ms.Padmini Iyer!
She taught me Chemistry in my Elevent and Twelfth years! I'm totally awestruck at the mere thought of her and that's how much I love her teaching! So, I was called for by Ms.Padmini Iyer in my dreams and I dropped everything to visit her in school!
So, I venture into my school after what Eighteen Years and find her teaching a bunch of kids something. She sees me come in and immediately throws a question at me
"How do you prepare HCl" I'm taken aback. I realize that she is asking me about Hydrochloric acid and am thinking 'nobody prepares HCl. One just buys it from a drug store" . But obviously that cannot be the right answer and am instantly that I do not know the answer and I stutter!
Just then as though luck would have it an office attender appears and tell her that the Princi wants to see her and off she goes!
I heave a sigh of relief and turn around. The whole class is staring at me and all eyes seem to say "So, you do not know how to prepare HCl" . I try smiling away and I realize I start sweating. All my happiness and elation of meeting my favourite teacher remains but I shudder to fail her command!
My heart starts to beat faster and I wake up suddenly and the dream comes to an end. I have some water and go off to bed again! Now, what do I read from it? Why her and why all of a sudden?
Should I meet her? Is it like puranic times when gods appear in dreams and tell them things? Well she is god for me! No one else has stirred so much passion in learning than she has in me.
She taught me Chemistry in my Elevent and Twelfth years! I'm totally awestruck at the mere thought of her and that's how much I love her teaching! So, I was called for by Ms.Padmini Iyer in my dreams and I dropped everything to visit her in school!
So, I venture into my school after what Eighteen Years and find her teaching a bunch of kids something. She sees me come in and immediately throws a question at me
"How do you prepare HCl" I'm taken aback. I realize that she is asking me about Hydrochloric acid and am thinking 'nobody prepares HCl. One just buys it from a drug store" . But obviously that cannot be the right answer and am instantly that I do not know the answer and I stutter!
Just then as though luck would have it an office attender appears and tell her that the Princi wants to see her and off she goes!
I heave a sigh of relief and turn around. The whole class is staring at me and all eyes seem to say "So, you do not know how to prepare HCl" . I try smiling away and I realize I start sweating. All my happiness and elation of meeting my favourite teacher remains but I shudder to fail her command!
My heart starts to beat faster and I wake up suddenly and the dream comes to an end. I have some water and go off to bed again! Now, what do I read from it? Why her and why all of a sudden?
Should I meet her? Is it like puranic times when gods appear in dreams and tell them things? Well she is god for me! No one else has stirred so much passion in learning than she has in me.
14 January 2010
Oh my god! I lost my gmail password!
I had a few hair raising moments when It appeared that I had lost my gmail password. I panicked because it refused to log me in how much ever times i tried! For some reason it kept asking me to fill in the captcha and the password!
I was terrified to think that my password has been compromised! I had only one email account and thats pretty much is my registered email for most of my critical internet systems. I shudder to think of being locked out of my gmail account!
It has enough emails in it that someone could have me all figured out and wipe my existence from the net altogether! All sorts of such crazy thoughts were creeping me out!
Finally I realized after five minutes that gmail never said that my password was wrong! It just kept prompting me to enter the captcha! I realized this and then it was straight to my inbox!
Phew! What a scary thought! I realized today that I must get myself a secondary account! Perhaps make my wife's main email account my secondary account!
I was terrified to think that my password has been compromised! I had only one email account and thats pretty much is my registered email for most of my critical internet systems. I shudder to think of being locked out of my gmail account!
It has enough emails in it that someone could have me all figured out and wipe my existence from the net altogether! All sorts of such crazy thoughts were creeping me out!
Finally I realized after five minutes that gmail never said that my password was wrong! It just kept prompting me to enter the captcha! I realized this and then it was straight to my inbox!
Phew! What a scary thought! I realized today that I must get myself a secondary account! Perhaps make my wife's main email account my secondary account!
05 January 2010
Instant Karma
There are times when I believe that gods have done an exemplary job creating this universe full of wonderful things that are overwhelmingly beautiful! and then there are many times, I think god got it completely screwed up when he failed to introduce 'Instant karma' along with the other laws of nature.
When we read about gross atrocities being committed by individuals, governments and dictators against innocent, my blood boils. Why does not god strike the perpetrators down with a bolt from the sky?
Alright, at least make them fall into a pit and bury themselves alive!
Time and again we watch in stupefied silence as pedophiles and mass murderers go about their crimes with gay abandon for years and years undetected until when someone uncovers them.
Why cannot these guys find their crime hitting them right back? One does not expect miracles, it can be a natural phenomenon. You commit a murder and walk out only to be hit by a bus and drop dead! Ta da, that's a natural way of bumping off a murderer!
The bus driver is not to be mistaken here. Let the law enforcement agencies spend their energies in ensuring that the bus driver did not commit any crime. Ironically, law enforcement agencies then would not have any murder to solve! For world will be on 'Autopunish' mode! They just have to log the facts and close the case!
Thievery shall be 'auto-punished' with temporary amnesia or even better, they trip, fall and break their leg on their getaway!
Law enforcement can be restricted to traffic policing , crowd control and other regulatory jobs! God can perhaps leave alone civil cases to humans? Its up to you god to decide! Like suing your neighbor because their dog pooped on your un-mowed lawn!
Imagine the amount of money the world will be saved! All those high security prisons that can be converted to schools!
Viva Instant Karma!
God, pls consider this as a change request if you have not earmarked this for your next edition of the world! Pls try to do better than a new sticker job.
When we read about gross atrocities being committed by individuals, governments and dictators against innocent, my blood boils. Why does not god strike the perpetrators down with a bolt from the sky?
Alright, at least make them fall into a pit and bury themselves alive!
Time and again we watch in stupefied silence as pedophiles and mass murderers go about their crimes with gay abandon for years and years undetected until when someone uncovers them.
Why cannot these guys find their crime hitting them right back? One does not expect miracles, it can be a natural phenomenon. You commit a murder and walk out only to be hit by a bus and drop dead! Ta da, that's a natural way of bumping off a murderer!
The bus driver is not to be mistaken here. Let the law enforcement agencies spend their energies in ensuring that the bus driver did not commit any crime. Ironically, law enforcement agencies then would not have any murder to solve! For world will be on 'Autopunish' mode! They just have to log the facts and close the case!
Thievery shall be 'auto-punished' with temporary amnesia or even better, they trip, fall and break their leg on their getaway!
Law enforcement can be restricted to traffic policing , crowd control and other regulatory jobs! God can perhaps leave alone civil cases to humans? Its up to you god to decide! Like suing your neighbor because their dog pooped on your un-mowed lawn!
Imagine the amount of money the world will be saved! All those high security prisons that can be converted to schools!
Viva Instant Karma!
God, pls consider this as a change request if you have not earmarked this for your next edition of the world! Pls try to do better than a new sticker job.
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