I Am From…….by Pooja Kini

I am from oatmeal,
served fresh in the morning,
with a brown sugar dress, and raisin sequins
I am from penalties and corners,
Part of a center forwarded game
I am from the dainty Japanese maple, whose tender limbs,
once provided a scarlet seat,

I am from the delicate Kawai,
upright and ebony, sounding each morning,
a single flaw etched into it’s spotless exterior

I am from the corroded brandy table,
minuscule pits of sadness scratched into it’s front
From the upside-down stink horns, residing in the crevices of mildewed fir bark

I am from dirt covered cuticles,
jagged nails, a bruise or two embodied into my skin

I am from rich pumpkin pie,
creamy whipped cream,
From Mom’s delicious gravy covered chicken
I am from Chai in the evening,
from Hola and Bonjour
From A job worth doing is a job worth doing well

Hidden notes to self,
pages of markings,
in a shuffle of half shreddd loose-leaf
Kept safely,untouched ,
in it’s own glass case

In….It’s own imaginary Louvre

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W h I t E ……by Pooja Kini

White

White.

What is such a pure color?

Might it be a dove, soaring the skies?

Free, away from the arguments of the world

Is it as pure as love?

The feeling of bliss?

Or the clouds up in heaven

Sweet smells of jasmines

Blooming in a garden

Scents drifting away in the cool air

Would it be the sky at dawn?

Embroidered with fog?

Or snowflakes falling gently from the sky.

Sweet sugar icing, upon a cake.

Is it that?

Seven colors.

To form only one.

White is a mystery.

I do wonder,

Why?

P00j@

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One night …..Camping at Lake Lopez by Pooja

Trees rustled softly in the wind and crickets chirped.  It was a cold night.  I trembled under my blanket.  The air had a misty, damp smell and the only noise I heard in my tent was the swift shaking of the hood as it swayed in the soft winds of the night.

I pulled the blanket over me,  zipped all the windows shut and snuggled to keep me warm.  I could not move much either on a airbed as they would bounce and the sheets would slip off exposing the cold top of the bed.  Slowly staring into the night sky, making shapes out of the stars visible thru the nets on top of the tent, I must have dozed off into a deep sleep.

The next morning, the Sun shining thru all possible vents in the tent, a pinkish grey color radiated through the helpless tent.  The lake across from our tent shimmered with the reflecting light of the sun.  Some early birds had already hit the water with their paddle boats and little yachts.  I woke up to take in the morning glory and decided to jog.  Jog all the way up to the breakfast area.  Yeah, it was already 7:30am – thinking all along, “Hope I am not late for Breakfast.”

Some habits die hard!!! Ciao. Pooja

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Reflections of a 4th Grader about first day at school!

 

First time I went to School…..by Pooja Kini

I hid behind my mother’s arm, squeezing her hand tightly. What is school going to be like? Is it fun? I am only two! It is way too early!! This Montessori thing, I did not like it one bit!! “Mom, I don’t want to….” I kept telling my mom. I did not want to go. A scary lady popped out of nowhere. I was surprised to see her and wondered, ” Where did she come from?”

“Hi!” she exclaimed. “I am your teacher, Libby! We are going to have a lot of fun! What is your name?” I looked at mom to ask her if it was alright to tell her. Because, I knew never to talk to strangers. She nodded yes, and so I told Libby my name. Just after that, Libby took me over to the crammed classroom! “Bye Mom!” I shouted loudly. Ms. Libby told me to sit on the rug for story time. As I did so, something queer caught my eye! I’d never seen it before! Amidst the classroom crowded as a beehive, I spotted it, in the middle of all the reds, greens and blues. Just smack in there, was a rope. What then looked like a rope. Not just by itself, but tied to a kid’s shoe. Little did I realize that it was shoe lace. I had never worn shoes with laces and this was quite amusing to me. “Oh NO!, he is tied up so he cannot run”! I crawled across to him and pulled the rope. It came out. “Yeah! I said to myself”.

Ms Libby called out loudly, “Pooja, go to the library and put your head down!”. I cried, scared and wanting to go home.”Now”, she called. Sniffing, I ran! Hot tears blurred my eyes and dyed my cheeks bright red. It was only a few minutes until Ms. Libby soothingly called, “Pooja, please come here”. I did so. ” You cannot pull shoe laces”! I nodded. “Come on, let us have some fun!” Suddenly, I wanted to come back to school with Libby, tomorrow!

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Abraham Lincoln’s Letter to his son’s headmaster.

A WORD TO TEACHERS

Last saturday, I visited my dear friends Prashanth & Meera’s home. We were to go out as families to celebrate our birthdays. (Prashanth and I share birthdays on successive dates). While at his home office, watching the cricket match between India and Australia, I happened to notice a framed reprint of a letter written by Abraham Lincoln to the headmaster of his son’s school. I read it a few times. I truly treasure it. I might have reflected on it all thru that evening and the following day. I decided, I have to post the contents of that letter on my blog – lest some of my dear friends don’t get to read it OR not make its reading an accident, but rather, a necessity that will define a purpose – a rather good one!

“He will have to learn, I know, that all men are not just and are not true. But teach him if you can, the wonder of books.. but also give him quiet time to ponder the eternal mystery of birds in the sky, bees in the sun and flowers on a green hillside.

In school, teach him it is far more honorable to fall than to cheat…..

Teach to have faith in his own ideas, even if everyone tells him he is wrong.

Teach him to be gentle with gentle people and tough with the tough.

Try to give my son the strength not to follow the crowd when everyone getting on the bandwagon…

Teach him to listen to all men; but teach him also to filter all he hears on a screen of truth, and take only the good that comes through.

Teach him, if you can, how to laugh when he is sad… Teach him there is no shame in tears.

Teach him to scoff at cynics and to be beware of too much sweetness.. Teach him to sell his brawn and brain to highest bidders, but never to put a price on his heart and soul. Teach him to close his ears to a howling mob.. and stand and fight if thinks he is right.

Treat him gently, but do not cuddle him, because only the test of fire makes fine steel. Let him have the courage to be impatient.. Let him have the patience to be brave. Teach him always to have sublime faith in himself, because then he will have faith in humankind.

This is a big order, but see what you can do. . He is such a fine little fellow my son!

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Marketing Innovation – Dabbawalas of Mumbai as a channel

Dabbawalas to market Reliance Power IPO

MUMBAI: Reliance Money, the financial services and products distribution company of Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, has latched on to a marketing innovation. The firm has roped in the Six Sigma perfected dabbawalas to get an edge in their run-up to the Reliance Power IPO, among a host of other tradeable financial services. The dabba which arrives on the dot at most office desks with home-cooked food, will have other steaming offers in a bulging paper envelope. Apart from the full bouquet of mutual funds, insurance products and money transfer services, Reliance Money expects to push demat accounts, and IPO application forms through this channel, beginning with the Reliance Power application forms. The dabbawalas will not only carry Reliance Money’s messages across the city, they will even pick up requests and completed forms from customers back to the company. “Its a dedicated two-way communications channel,” says Sudip Bandyopadhyay, director of Reliance Money. “The idea is to reach out to a maximum number of retail investors.” According to recent estimates, the dabbawalas move around 1.6 lakh lunch boxes everyday across the length and breath of Mumbai, with a workforce of around 5,000. The alliance ensures that Reliance Money gets access to the most sought after segment of 24-60 year old professionals in the city, “each of who is individualistic enough to insist on fresh, hot home food every day. Reaching out directly to this segment makes more marketing sense than acquiring impersonal mailing lists,” says the director. Given that some parts of this segment may not qualify as traditional equity investors, putting across a customised value proposition for each individual is an added bonus. According to reports, though the average dabbawala has no formal education beyond class eight on an average, their work practices draw upon a 120-year old logistics system. That means the familiar workforce on Mumbai streets – for whom even the unruly Mumbai traffic stops to let pass – misses no more than one delivery in every 10 million. Though the deal with the dabbawalas is to be an event-based deal, Reliance Money is also looking at alternate channels to sell its services. It has also tied up with coffee chain Barista, where each outlet has a trading kiosk. Many travel agencies (like Kuoni) as well as courier offices (like DTDC) too will distribute the company’s financial products. Reliance Money is the electronic transaction platform associated with Reliance Capital, a private sector financial services companies.

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World’s Cheapest Car – A promise kept by Tata

For those who have lived or visited India, one can relate to the excessive use of two wheelers to transport middle class families or rely on the vulnerable rickshaws to get around cities and in some rural areas between towns and villages too.  Quite like Maruti – a joint venture between the then Indian Govt. and Suzuki broke the price and size barriers to make cars affordable, Tata Motors, in keeping the promise made by  their Chairman, Ratan Tata, have yet again indicated what the Indian industry is capable of for the world market.  Designed, built and tested on Indian Roads, it can only prove to be a food for thought to the advanced design teams and factories of leading car makers across the world.  Economic Times captures the launch in the article below.

RATAN TATA, chairman of the Tata group of companies, has a cerebral and cordial manner. But the so-called “one-lakh car”, which Tata Motors unveiled in Delhi to a rapt public on Thursday January 10th, is a product of impatience and chutzpah. Instead of waiting for the great swell of prosperity in India and elsewhere to create millions of customers for his company’s products, Mr Tata has decided to wade out—further than any one has gone before—to bring a car to them.

In India one lakh means 100,000, and Tata will sell the most basic version of its new car at 100,000 rupees, or $2,500 (not including taxes and the cost of transporting it to the showrooms). This is roughly half the price of its nearest rival, and little more than the cost of a three-wheeled auto-rickshaw. But the “nano”, as the car is called, is no rickshaw. Apart from the fourth wheel and the doors, it has a 623cc engine that will muster 33 brake horsepower. The car should eke out 50 miles to the gallon, Mr Tata says. It complies with the “Euro III” pollution standards that prevail in India and should meet the tougher Euro IV standards with a bit of tweaking. The firm claims that the car produces less pollution than some two-wheelers produced in India today.

Tata Motors is best known for its trucks, lovingly decorated and recklessly driven, that clatter along India’s highways. It started making small passenger cars only a decade ago. Its low-cost car project has set a trend. Mr Tata says he is “quite gratified” that other firms are following suit. Bajaj Auto, which is known for its two- and three-wheelers, said on January 8th that it hoped to team up with Renault and Nissan to produce its own low-cost car. Fiat, Ford, Honda and Toyota also have cheap models in the works.  Tata may discover a market, only for others to crowd into it.

“It’s not our God-given domain,”says Mr Tata.

Cheap cars can be expensive to invent. Tata experimented with a smaller engine, but was dissatisfied with its performance. It hoped to use continuous-variable transmission, but had to make do, for now, with manual. Tata’s rivals may be able to free-ride on its efforts, copying the cost-cutting tricks it had to discover through painstaking trial and error. “It will be an easier task for them than it was for us,” Mr Tata admits.

Competitors will, for example, notice how Tata shrank the car into what its chairman calls a “concise package”, with the powertrain at the back and the wheels at the “extremities”. The result is 21% bigger inside than the Maruti 800, says Ravi Kant, the managing director of Tata Motors, but is only 80% as long. That will, at least, shorten the traffic jams to which the nano will contribute. Congestion could be a big problem, if millions more cars are to take to the roads. The country’s poor-quality road network is slowly improving, but it is heavily over-used. With India’s transport arteries already so badly clogged, a boom in sales of low-cost cars could bring about a seizure.

Commuting in India’s cities can be both cozy and deadly. Children squeeze snugly between father at the handlebars of a motorcycle, and mother riding side-saddle at the back. This precarious balancing act, says Mr Tata was the “visual target” he had in mind when he first conceived of the need “to create another form of transport”. About 1,800 people die on Delhi’s roads each year, perhaps one-third of them on two-wheelers. Only 5% die in cars. Tata’s project may pose risks for investors, but it promises unaccustomed safety for customers.

In his address during the launch he said ” A promise made is a promise made”. Spoken like Sir. Jamshedji Tata!

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CHAK DE INDIA – Another Inspiring Bollywood Movie

‘Chak De India’ is a beautifully made film that makes you laugh, makes you cry, gives you goose bumps, and stirs up patriotism inside you. It is a film that every lover of good cinema must watch.

It was during one of my daughter’s soccer games that I decided to watch it. She had just been beaten in a game, played the defense position instead of her favorite offense or forward position. Added to it was the verbal unsolicited tirade from her dad that she had to listen …..Poor soul. So, I had to do something for her, shall we say, self esteem and confidence to be restored.

I decided to use one of my audio-visual motivational techniques. Borrowed a copy of ‘Chak De India’ and got her to watch it the night before the game. What a move it was. She could relate to the importance of various positions, adversities faced at higher levels of competition, need to play rough when required and most of all inspirational teamwork. Long story short, she managed to score three goals and carried her team to victory AND played midfield as well as defense in the game and did so with aplomb.

‘Chak De India’ is not just a sports film. It is replete with myriad emotions. And the best part is that Shimit Amin tells the story very realistically, making it all the more believable. He also doesn’t bring any unnecessary dramatization into the story.

The movie has a number of intelligently conceived sequences. For instance, a sequence when the girl’s hockey team has to prove their mettle against the men’s team. The girls lose by a narrow margin, but they get an applause and salutation from male players. Or, another sequence when the girls bash up a bunch of eve teasers. These sequences and the last portions of the second half – when the crucial matches are played – evoke a flood of emotions inside a viewer.

I cannot recall a single dull moment in the film. From the word go, the movie grips you like a vice and keeps you riveted until the end credits roll. During this ‘Chak De’ ride, you go through myriad emotions. You empathize with the pain of the protagonist, cherish the clashes and camaraderie of the girls, and you are filled with an uplifting, charged-up feeling as you see the underdogs rise to the occasion.

My son gets so fired up with the title song that by playing it one could shake him out of a dull mood. I am not surprised that the stadium sang to this song in the recent 20/20 cricket match between India and Australia. That sure must have helped India win to some extent.

To cut to the chase, ‘Chak De India’ keeps you on the edge of your seat, even though it is a sports-based film and not a thriller.

The film’s story is simple and yet it carries so many undercurrents.

Kabir Khan (Shah Rukh), the best centre-forward in Indian hockey team, misses the crucial, last-minute penalty stroke against Pakistan and is blamed for the Indian team’s defeat in the finals. So much so, he is labeled gaddar (betrayer) by his own fellow countrymen. Disgraced and dishonored for one momentary failure, Kabir Khan leaves his parental house with his mother and disappears into oblivion.

Seven years later he appears again, not as a player but as a coach of a bunch of girls in whom even the Hockey Federation has no confidence. Kabir Khan has just three months to coach and train these girls for the Hockey World Cup in Australia.

The girls come from all over India – Haryana, Chandigarh, Punjab, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, North East and other states.

On the outside, Kabir Khan is very strict with the girls. Through his toughness he wants to instill discipline and integrity in the team, something which is significantly missing.

Within the team, there is hardly any camaraderie. There are usual girlie fights and arguments. Somebody is egoistic, somebody too self-centered, somebody is hot-tempered and somebody is simply naïve.

Using very unconventional methods, Kabir Khan manages to create a team spirit among the girls. But some differences remain, only to be sorted out in the World Cup tournament in Australia, which the team must win to make India proud. But Kabir Khan is fighting for more than pride for India. For him the victory would bring redemption (for his momentary failure 7 years ago) and reclamation of his lost honor. And when that moment of reckoning does come, he looks on with disbelief in his teary eyes.

A constant thread of humor runs through the film’s narrative. The humor is vernacular, and genuinely funny at that. The funniest of the lot is the rustic Haryanavi girl Komal (Chitrashi Rawat) and the hot-tempered Punjabi girl Balbir Kaur (Tanya Abrol).

The superstar doesn’t go overboard in his performance in ‘Chak De’– there is no quivering of lips and no heavy breathing. Using his facial expressions and intense eyes to his advantage, with utmost conviction SRK plays a man simmering and seething within. Undoubtedly, this one is a praiseworthy performance from the King Khan.

At the end of the day, ‘Chak De India’ is a deeply touching film that offers plenty for you to carry home with.

Do yourself a favor, go and see this film. It is a must-watch. If any of you visit India and get your hands on a legal copy, send me one. This one, like Lagaan, is a collectible.

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I Can Make A Difference……Pooja Kini

I Can Make A Difference

By conserving water… one drop at a time

By saving the forest… one tree at a time

By flexing power… one room at a time

I Can Make A Difference…..

By caring for the homeless… one blanket at a time

By fighting poverty… one meal at a time

By helping cure juvenile diabetes… one child at a time

I Can Make A Difference….

By making all smile… one face at a time

By spreading joy… one Christmas at a time

By sharing love… one heart at a time

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BORDERLESS INNOVATION – Beyond Innovation Nations

It was in 1991 that Kenich Ohmae’s book Borderless World first made its impact on me and got me into trying to becoming a global executive as against a local executive.  In those years, it was an attempt to try and innovate in your functions rather than product innovation.

Being a Product Marketing Manager in India, for products built and developed in the US for most part, it was innovative approaches to positioning, bringing and getting people to adopting it in India.  Sixteen years later, we are now in a completely different world.  A borderless, or FLAT as we call it now, yet, innovating on all fronts.

I had a chance to read excepts of the new book by John Kao, an innovation consultant, who points out in his new book, Innovation Nation: How America Is Losing Its Innovation Edge, Why It Matters, and What We Can Do to Get It Back, all the key advantages once enjoyed by the U.S. are nearly gone.

His strongest point is that the geography of innovation is changing. For much of the 20th century, the locus of leading-edge thinking was the U.S. and Western Europe. The rise of Asia is evening that out, redistributing the fruits of innovation: wealth and power.

 

From Borderless World  to a Flat World to Innovation Nation to Borderless Innovation – how did things change so soon?

— Global Talent. The return to greatness of Asia’s older universities and the building of new educational institutions mean that brainpower is more evenly distributed. In addition, a giant reverse diaspora is under way as tens of thousands of Chinese and Indian scientists and engineers, many of them tops in their fields, leave the U.S. to return to their homelands to teach and work.

— Venture Capital Availability. Venture capital pools are operating all over Asia and Europe, speeding the generation of new startups. European and American VC firms have offices in most major cities in Asia and Eastern Europe. Initial public offerings have totaled $40 billion in China so far in 2007. Two of my good friends from the Silicon Valley have set up large funds to assist new ventures with a focus on India.

— Silicon Valley is no longer only in CA. The social and economic ecosystem that has been so productive in Northern California is being reproduced all over the world. Bangalore in India and Biopolis in Singapore , have found the magic once mainly centered in U.S. innovation hubs.

— Dollar is losing its foothold –We see buying power across a few nations growing and Euro gaining strength.  In countries like India, which seem to be delivering the recent additions to the list of billionaires – including arguably the new #1 Mukesh Ambani.

 

_Lower barriers to entry – With access to top computing power, labs, design schools and JIT access to latest and most current, countries like India and China are able to bring out the best products, programs, methodologies that best help their respective economies as well as gain global footage.

 

–eShowcase- With the advent of ecommerce, web commerce and ability to show and tell from any part of the world, competitive innovators are able to attract potential clients and user from all across the world.  Thus removing yet another barrier of travel, visa, language and possibly even capital to just show sample work.

 

Kao probably underplays a critical issue: the role of global corporations in innovation’s changing geography. Such companies, he suggests, “operate with increasing independence from their country of origin…. They are shipping manufacturing, design and especially R&D abroad at a ferocious pace.” So fast is this happening, says Kao in his book, that Craig Barrett, chairman of Intel (INTC ), told him his company might not even qualify as American anymore. Is this the beginning of the Borderless Innovation?

Global corporations are benefiting from this global shift. Just as the fall of communism led to a wider pool of labor and capital, so too will the global spread of innovation create a wider pool of talent for companies. Albeit originating this time from the east rather than the  traditional west or to be precise – America.

But Americans are not gaining as much from all this.  In the past, economic benefits have gone mostly to the first mover—the innovator, entrepreneur, or creator. Not to mention the location of the first mover – in a conducive environment like the Silicon Valley for example.

Kao notes that the U.S. already spends more per public-school student than any other major country. He wants new ways to teach, such as integrating game culture with curriculum development. What will it take for more Americans to start getting into the mainstream of engineering, design, technology, medicine instead of the now popular “liberal arts” major?  Will America be able to leverage the education system and potential by collaborating with the universities and curriculum in India and other parts of Asia that is producing these brilliant, wide pool of talent?  Will America start looking at the seeding stages of education while also looking at the seeding capital for Silicon Valley companies?  Will we truly be able to work seamlessly in a world economy that co-exists because of the quality and value of what each delivers and not because of the currency differences and labor arbitrage?

Agood blend of the east and west has always delivered interesting progressive results.  Can we potentially bet on the future by applying some innovative approaches to education and betting on the next generation to bet on the future? Is Global Mentorship an approach?  Is America open minded about a novel “innovative approach”? Only time will tell…..or  will it be too late? 

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