Microhoo !

Imagine this..

You build this powerful Internet company from the scratch and make it one of the popular brands in tech domain. Within few years, it becomes a house-hold name through its e-mail,messenger,search,auto,photo & other services.

There comes another superior search company which captures the market and pushes this company to number two spot in Internet Ad business. You are still fighting with that company for the market share.

On the same tech planet lies a big bad monarch whose eyes falls on the company you built. The big company announce that it wants to acquire your company.

How would you feel?

Irritated ? Pissed off? Cautious? Defensive? Ward-off?

That is exactly what Larry Yang & his team is feeling now. If you didn't get the clues, the company in trouble is Yahoo and the company trying to acquire is Microsoft.

The drama unfolded almost 2 months ago sometime in January when Microsoft offered to take over Yahoo at an unprecedented $44 billion, almost $31 per Yahoo share. Yahoo rebuffed the offer. Microsoft wanted to acquire Yahoo so that it can form a strong force against search giant Google.

Yahoo's board rejected the offer saying it is too less. Then Microsoft openly threatened to stage a coup in share holders in next Yahoo share holder's meeting. Yahoo postponed the meeting.

Meanwhile Yahoo was trying to form alliance with other players such as AOL, News group & even its rival Google. Looks like it didn't work out.

Microsoft had given deadline to Yahoo till Apr 24, which passed on.

Now we need to see what strategy does Microsoft follow? Will it go for a hostile take-over by staging a proxy board of directors? Will it try to increase the bid and win over share holders?

With recent Yahoo results out, still Yahoo is in tender position. Share holders may side with Microsoft bid unless Yahoo shows some dramatic improvements. As far as Microsoft, they make walk-away from the bid to create a feeling in shareholders that they are loosing a chance.Once dust is settled, they may come back & acquire Yahoo!

Even if Microsoft gets successful in acquiring Yahoo, the real question is how do they merge? They have competing products in domains and in some cases, each of their products are high profit earners. What will be happen to products such as MSN, Yahoo Messenger, MSN Auto,Yahoo Auto?

Technically also, they differ hugely. Microsoft uses proprietary stuff & Yahoo uses open sources.This will definitely create issues in merging & sharing the services.

More than anything, the two companies differ in culture. Microsoft is this huge corporate organisation, while Yahoo is still youngster company.

Lots of challenges ahead for Microsoft acquisition team..

As of now, all eyes on Redmond..

Desis & 'earn-money-sitting-at-home' bait

Other day I was shopping with a friend in Walmart. There we came across this desi guy who introduced himself. In few minutes, he started chatting as if we knew each other before. Before we left, he had taken our cell numbers saying that we will 'keep in touch'.

Since that time I had an intrusion in my mind and that became true when he called me & my friend exactly after one week ! I had sensed that he would call and that too for this topic itself.

He had called my friend and was asking if me & my friend were interested in some 'business model' which will give extra income sitting at home ! My friend had asked what model was that he talking. He gave some wavy answer asking us to attend a presentation. My friend had said to him that both of us are extremely busy with our own works and we don't have any time for such things.

Thus there was one more instance of a desi trying to extend the cobwebs of chain marketing.

I've observed the modus operundi. It is very simple. These people meet in public places like shopping malls, restaurants & movie halls. Then they start conversation like 'Which part of India you are from?". Depending on whatever place you say, they would have an expression " Oh Bangalore, I had been there. Nice city but these days too crowded" or "My friend stays there.where in Bangalore?".After some chatting, they end the conversation there saying "Let us keep in touch.This is my number.Can I have your number?".

After some days, you get a call from the same guy "Hey, how are you doing. You remember we met there.I just wanted to tell you something exciting. Actually I'm into a business which is fetching me nice amount, thought I'll share that with you".

By the time, I hear that I turn off myself and somehow get rid of the person.

I heard from my friends about some desi couples who are into such chain business.This is one-to-one selling, where the guy tries to sell his business to the husband while the lady with him tries to sell the points to wife. They know even if one of them is interested they will make other to go for it.

I feel irritated because they use the desi identity to impose their chain or web marketing on others. Let them use desi identity, but isn't it bad that they misuse the little trust we do by giving numbers feeling that I was giving to a fellow friendly desi.

This need not be always with strangers only. Sometime ago, a college friend of mine, who was not in touch for a while, suddenly contacted me through mail. It was good to see him after a while and naturally the first conversation was very exciting and he asked for my number. After few conversations, there he was with the same business model.

I didn't like this. I had thought that he was contacting me after a while as a friend, but his intentions were different. No points in guessing, I never entertained that guy again.

These days I've become cautious when some desi strangers try to introduce themselves. The problem with this is we start to look every stranger through the same lens. Same thing happened other day.

I was at Sardar's Indian Shop having lunch on a lazy Saturday afternoon. A mid-50s couple were sitting in table next to me and they asked if they mind sitting with me.I said fine but suddenly I had grown cautious. The couple talked everything about India, US, cultures but no mention about business or chain marketing. In the mean time I had forgotten to ask what they do. It turns out to be that person was a professor in California university with a PhD in semiconductors.His wife gave their home address saying that I can come to their house whenever I feel like having home made paratas!

I felt bad that I unnecessarily doubted them. But I feel it is okay to be cautious than to feel irritated later.

Justice finally ?

Machan...

That is what his friends called him.

He was a lively person who graduated from IIM in 2003. He could have very well-chosen any cosy job or he could have left India for better opportunities. Instead he chose to join a government PSU,Indian Oil Corporation (IOC).After joining IOC, he realised the harsh realities which no institute teaches. Lakhimpur Kirki, the place he worked was in the sea of corruption, the petrol being sold there was adultered and oil mafia ruled there. He raised voice against them. He closed few petrol bunks and definitely the oil mafia didn't like this.

The result..six bullets found way inside the young man's body.

Manjunath Shanmugam,fondly called Machhan was dead.

That was on a fateful November 19,2005.

16 months after this , court had pronounced all the accused guilty in the killing of Manjunath Shanmugam. In India, where judicial system is known to take painfully long durations to deliver and the accused fiddle with the system, this was amazingly speedy trail. Thanks to the media and Manjunath Shanmugam Trust which never let the things settle down.

Manjunath Shanmugam Trust which was formed by few IIM alumnus to seek justise in the Manjunath murder case, made every possible effort to fight for the cause.They hired a lawyer, attended the court sessions and most importantly mobilised all the resources to fight the case. Newspapers constantly kept the case in limelight, IIM students & many supporting persons attended the sessions.

Now after 16 months the court gave the judgement and it is a small victory for the trust , media and all those seeking for justice in Manju's murder case.

But is this any justice for a soul like Manju's ? Does it in anyways fill the void left for his grieving parents & family ?

What about the adulteration of oil against which Manju laid his life fighting ? Is something better there?

Definitely not..

But at least it is a little satisfaction that some justice is done. A little satisfaction that this case also was not termed as 'robbery murder' as it happened for Satyendra Dubey's murder case.Most importantly it is a little comfort that people no longer are resigning with the fate and at least few of them are coming forward to fight the system.

Manjunath Shanmugam trust has established an 'Integrity award' in Manju's name to be given to people or group working to uphold the values in Indian corporate,government and public matters. Also a Right to Information helpline was opened which provides the help regarding the use of Right to Information(RTI) act .The act enables the people to question the government, inspect their files, take copies of govt. documents, inspect government works, take sample of material from government works.

Similarly the S. K. Dubey Foundation formed after Satyendra Dubey's murder is mobilising against the fight for such cases.

Atleast fight for Manju's case was backed up by his alumni, media & some noted personalities. But how many cases has the luxury of such backing-up?Government has been talking of 'Whistle-blower' policy which provision to protect the whistle blowers.But there are no signs of it seeing light.

But the question which haunts is still how many more lives like Manju & Satyendra needs to be sacrificed?

Will the sacrifice of this martyrs go wasted?

PS: As you read this, court will decide on the exact punishments to be given for the accused in Manju's case.High chances that the sentence will be questioned in higher courts.

Reinventing the phone..

I'm not a die-hard gizmo man and I do think many times before I buy any consumer electronic goods.

As I have experienced,once in a while comes few things which can shake this whole mentality.It happened last time when that mind-boggling sleek portable music player came into market and how excited we were to get one of those. Apple got rewarded richly for being innovative and that product was called 'iPod'.

Apple every year conducts events such as Macworld Expo and Apple Expo. The highlight of this event will be the 'Stevenote'.It is the slang term for Keynote addresses by Apple CEO, Steve Jobs. Steve is known for his vibrant speaking style and manner of exciting a crowd, particularly during his speeches at Macworld conferences. He usually wears a black long-sleeved shirt, blue jeans, and sneakers. Most new Apple product releases are first shown to the public in this keynote addresses by Steve Jobs.

Before every 'Stevenote', there will be tremendous buzz about what Apple is coming up or which product Steve is going to reveal. iPod was one such product which was revealed in one such Stevenote. So this year it was time for 'Stevenote' and rumors were high about a revolutionary new product Apple is going to launch and Steve didn't disappoint.

Apple introduced 'iPhone'.

I must confess I was totally blown away by its looks. The iPhone looks gorgeous.But when I heard its technical features, there was no way to escape from its charisma.

What folks in Apple did was they combined three different devices - a revolutionary mobile phone, a wide screen iPod with touch controls and a internet communication device with desktop-class e-mail,web browsing & maps. They bundled all these three devices into one small and ligthweight device.

But the best part about iPhone is that there are no physical keys on the phone ! That means the entire mobile phone is a screen. So how do you dial the numbers ? Use the touch screen keyboard and if number is stored then by pointing the finger at a name on the list.

One more striking feature is the 'Visual Voicemail'. If you have voice mail enabled in your phone, then you know the pain of going through of every voicemails in a sequential order.The iPhone eliminates all this and you can pick the voice mail you want from the list!

Now to viewing photos in the phone.You can zoom in & out the photos using fingers.Set any picture as wallpaper and sent it by email all by touch.

Using the built-in Safari browser, you can browse the internet and use mails.With built-in Google maps you can view maps and satellite images or get directions and traffic information

Some high technology talks now. iPhone supports GSM,EDGE,Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.It has acceralometer which detects when you rotate from portrait to landscape.The proximity sensor detects when you lift the phone near to you ears and turn off the display and ambient light sensor automatically adjust the light settings.

And finally you can do the same things you can do with iPod.Play audio songs and videos.

Apple has announced the price of 4-GB iPhone to be $499 and 5-GB iPhone to be $599.But the iPhones will be available only in April,2007 in US and in Asia it will be only in 2008.

Apple had maintained so much secrecy about this product that even for 2 years when this project was going on, nobody was clear about what Apple is into. Even its partners in this project, Cingular,Yahoo and Google were not aware of. Only few in Apple knew it and it was the tightly guarded secret.

So will iPhone is going to take the mobile market by storm. Very early days and difficult to predict.But the way, Wall mart responded on announcement of iPhone was warming.The Apple stocks rose within minutes. On other end, Apple's iPhone was welcomed by a law suite from Cisco which apparently has the 'iPhone' trademark registered.

Few are questioning the pricing kept for iPhone saying $499 is too much compared to any other mobile available in market, even if iPhone offers too many things.But I feel the price will not be a factor as we had seen with iPod. When iPod was introduced with $199 and above price, everybody said why would people buy a music player which is 3-4 times costlier than any available players.Then we know how iPod had stunned everyone.I feel samething is going to happen with iPhone.

A long way to go, lets sit back and wait for iPhone to arrive

Oh ! by the way, congrats on the new name - 'Apple Inc' .

(Earlier it was 'Apple Computer Inc ' and they removed 'Computer' from their name)

Over to Steve and Apple...

A year that was..

One more year rolled away...

A recap of things which happened in the year..

January:
A trip month.
Day 1 in Big Bear.Next day in Palm Springs.
The trip saga continued as I visited Yosemite & Sequoia National Parks.

Febraury:
Birthday Boy.
As always I got one year older.

March:
I'm officially licensed to drive in CA !

April:
Work keeps me busy

May:
Re-union trip !
Trip to Phoenix,Las Vegas & Grand Canyon

June:
I start my Kannada blog

July:
New York - Niagara Trip

August:
Work !

Septemeber:
I'm in India !
See my 'life' for first time
Kolkata calling

October:
Durga Pooja in Kolkata
Puri-Konark-Bhubaneshwar trip
I get engaged to my 'life'
Those priceless days with her

November:
Back in US
San Fransisco-Yosemite-Mystery Spot trip

December:
Local guide for friends to Universal Studios-Disney land-Hollywood-Sea World

Pooja Phenomenon

Its been more than a year since I've been staying and working with Bengalis. As with any other state, they have their own unique culture, traditions, art, celebrations, food habits, heroes, fights. I'm used to the 'alao' love, 'maach' craziness and 'misti' longings of Bengalis.But one thing which stood way out and for which every Bengali goes bersek is 'Durga Pooja'.

During initial days of my stay with Bengali friends, I noticed that whenever somebody mentioned 'Durga Pooja', they would get energised so much and would never stopped talking about the Pooja. I never understood why Bengalis are so crazy about Pooja.

As I spent more and more time with them, I could only see that it is not few but most of the Bengali fraternity goes in mass Pooja mania. In office, I had seen people trying to somehow squeeze vaccations to India so that they can attend Pooja.And ones whoever couldn't go would be present in office physically and mentally they would be there in Pooja pendals.

What a divine coincidence! This time, things happened such that I was in Kolkata during Durga Pooja and it was time for me to get a first hand feel of 'Durga Pooja phenomenon'.

I arrived in Kolkata just a week before Durga Pooja started. It was already evident that Kolkata was waiting eagerly for Durga ma.Everybody in office & outside had one common favorite topic - Durga Pooja.

Durga Pooja was in the air !

As the days got closer to Durga Pooja, the strength in office started dwindling. In between some serious rain caused some concerns of spoiling the party.But it wasn't to be.

I had heard from Bengali friends that integral part of Durga Pooja is 'Pendal hopping' and I decided to try it myself.On the Pooja day, we started pendal hopping from the block where we stayed.As we started hopping from pendal to pendal I noticed that the crowd on the roads increased as the evening progressed. As the night grew old, there were families, friends, relatives, lovers..everybody out on streets to get soaked in festive atmosphere.

I heard somewhere that Bengalis like 'addabaazi', that is grouping together and having fun.Durga pooja was indeed the perfect time for addabaazi. People were visiting pendals, eating out, having fun.Totally a carnival feel.

The effort these guys put into bring uppendals is unbelievable. Each of the pendals are unique, theme-based and meticulosly planned. The lightings & decorations are so stunning.Most of them are so impressive that it is a pure art work.Durga ma is curved in various forms and using various materials.

While inside the pendal, 'Anjali' is performed and outside pendals 'dhaaks' roar. Anjali is the aarthi program and dhaaks are those drums, which give that unique sound to the celebrations.

We literally roamed the whole night and felt that city will never sleep for the festival.

Newspapers during those Pooja days carried exclusives only on Durga Pooja.Suppliments ran into pages about the best pendals, pooja special food and anything about Pooja.Most news channels too jumped the vagon and came up with exclusives.Most of the Bengali channels took viewers on a virtual 'pendal hopping' with live coverage from various pendals.

If pendals were one event, then Durga immersion procession on the last day was another colorful event.One notable thing was the significant number of ladies out on street , swaying to the dhaks.

Bengal is such a state where communists are ruling for past 2-3 decades and I was wondering how Durga Pooja and Communism can go together.It was sounding such a oxymoron imagining communists celebrating Durga pooja.Then I told to myself that nobody stopped people affiliated to communism from celebration.Even if they don't believe in God, they cant stop believing in celebrations!

That lead to another question..why in first place, Durga pooja generates such interest and celebrations?

I got a feel that Durga Pooja is no longer a festival of some particular caste but people has accepted it as their own festival. Added to this, is the excellent machinary which arranges Durga Pooja in such a stylish manner that people get soaked into it.The final reason what I felt was Bengalis though have several festivals, nothing is compared to Durga Pooja and Durga pooja is the time to let out all that steam accumulated.Contrast this to any South Indian state, where there will be atleast one festival every month.So net result is that people wait for a good year to get the opportunity to feel,enjoy & get drenched in one mega celebration.

And after-effects of Pooja looked devastating ! Next day after the immersion, I saw many people who were down with a feeling that Durga Pooja was over and few were already counting days for next year's pooja !! And few were so used to saying 'Shubh Bijay' that they couldnt stop saying it even after Durga Pooja !

With due regards to Bengalis, as one of my Bengali friend used to stay "Durga Pooja is the only time when Bengalis would be active after which they go back to sleep for rest of the year' !!

3H2777 family !

Its been a while since I was thinking about writing this.This is about my friends at workplace and related lives. There are 4 of us, whom people in office call as 'telephony' team.

First let me take you to my workplace.
One thing special about us is we don't have cubicles as rest of the office, instead we 4 sit in a big project room 3H2777.The project room has 4 huge white boards on four walls and each of us are located in one corner of the room.Anybody entering our project room often find themselves in a total techi-land with all sorts of telephony jargons,architecture diagrams,call flows,logics scribbled on boards.Desks give equal competition with every table decorated with manuals,training materials & various course wares.

Our project room is full of activity and these days been the cause of jealousy for many others for the amount of fun we have here!

Now coming to the people..

Meet Peru.
If you are thinking that is such a short & sweet name! Hold on, that is just first 4 letters of his legendary long name which I think has 42 letters.The senior most among us and perhaps the most experienced one at work and in life.Usually cool customer, highly confident-dedicated and with a huge sense of humor.Special mention about his 'cute' Hindi.He is our 'big bro' and his house is the place where we had those numerous dinner parties.Everytime he invites for dinner, we simply can't refuse.How can we resist the temptation to taste delicious food prepared by his wife Shikha.

Shikha is another strong-willed charming lady. She willed to spend her rest of her life with a man who had a different language,culture & food habits.I wonder how strong is the power of love! Well, we discovered in numerous visits that she is simply super in kitchen and can prepare any dish in the world.

Now back to office. Here is Asis, the young blood of our team or call him 'angry young man'.His earlier days marked with everything excess-smoking,boozing & outburst of anger.These days it is unbelievable to see the transition to almost total abstinence from smoke,liquids & much better anger management.Known for his very witty & clever comments, he is the 'live wire' of our project room. Often seen pulling everybody's legs in the room.His quick learning ability and mastery about any thing he learn can make him a key member of any team he is part of. He is the epitome of the 'bachelor' !

Meet Tathagatha. His name literally means 'one who knows everything'. Irrespective of factor that he knows or it not, he can talk about any topic. Nick named as 'MB' for the same reasons.He is another shining example of how any new technology-tool can be captured with hard work and dedication.Looks like he has stigma because of which none of his project managers stay in the project for a long time.A fellow aquarian and very fond of 'lungi'.Allegations against him include creating his own problem tickets & doing kuchi-kuchi stuff with PM !

Have you heard of LKG classmates meeting after almost 2 decades, falling in love and getting married.That is Tatha & his wife Aditi. He claims it was a missed call from Aditi that started that all. Tatha-Aditi's house is another stop for some home food. Anybody knowing English would commit suicide if they listen me,Tatha & Aditi speaking in English.We have a unwritten rule that there should be unnecessary 'the' in the sentences we speak.So it will be like 'how is the you','I'm the okay','We the go to the party'.Mind the blowing !

Talking of parties, I forgot to mention about the 'forced' rotation scheme we have for getting treats.It so happen that each one has to give treats, most of the time it is snatching treats,sometimes for some genuine reasons & sometimes really without any reasons.Whatever it is,treat is all that matters! Sometimes it takes some effort to snatch treats from few people !!

I always believe it is the people around you who make life look interesting & good.This was something about those kind of people.It feels nice to be in the company of these good men & women.

Some other time, may be I will come up about few more interesting people in my office !!