The AI Confidant: A Helpful Tool or a Dangerous Echo Chamber?

It flatters us. It listens to us. It solves our problems. But in the process, are we slowly building a wall between us and the real world?

The Impossible Burden: Why Being a “Conscious Consumer” in India Requires a PhD in Chemistry and a Law Degree

 

In India, most products marketed as “Natural”, “Organic”, “Herbal”, “Ayurvedic”, “100% Pure”, “Chemical-Free” etc… simply are not.

They hide behind regulations.
They hide behind language.
They hide behind loopholes.

And the burden of safety is dumped on the consumer.

21 Days to Form a Habit? Nah… Not Really

We think habit formation is about discipline and schedules — but it’s actually about attitude.
Why do some people stick to habits for decades and others collapse at the first drizzle?

Digital Islands

This Diwali was beautiful — lights everywhere, laughter at home, the comforting smell of sweets, and the quiet joy of being with family. It felt good. Warm. Familiar.

And yet, amidst all that brightness, one small thought kept surfacing — I didn’t receive a single personal wish or call from anyone.

Not one.

My day out - "Digitally Disconnected"

It was a pretty average afternoon, the kind you get on vacation. A day-long family outing, with all the usual suspects: cab rides, a few dozen photos, quick payments, and a whole lot of Google Maps. But by the time the afternoon rolled around, my phone battery was gasping for air, sitting at a perilous 30-something percent. I needed it to get us back to the hotel later, so I did the sensible thing: I switched it off for a few hours. No big deal, right?  I'm not one of those social media addicts who gets withdrawal symptoms from being offline. I was just cutting off a device, not a lifeline. Or so I thought. 

Hello World...

It’s been almost 6 years since I wrote anything in this blog. Not that I had a huge following when I was actively writing 😊 However, it is interesting to read those articles again and fascinating to see how my thought process has / has not changed in the intervening years. The world around has also changed dramatically. Blogging itself has dropped in popularity. Back in the 2000s, almost everyone I knew had a blog and wrote lengthy articles. Now, almost every single blog is lying dormant like mine. Blogging has now become restricted to serious writers and professionals who are looking to market their offerings or make money out of their blogs. 

'Mobile' Madness

It was a cloudy afternoon. A slight rain had washed over the city and the clouds were threatening to burst (Though as is usual every year, they did not). I was slowly making my way towards my house trying to stick to that 'non-existent' footpath, jumping over the small puddles of water that had formed and trying to avoid the numerous holes, mud and garbage. That short stretch to my home literally felt like crossing the fabled 'Seven Seas and Seven Mountains'. I was cursing the fate of the poor Chennaite, having to endure such troubles, when a voice rang out slightly behind me, near my right ear - "Chee, Poda Panni" (you pig !). I was startled. Who would scold me like that in broad day light and right on a busy road !

I turned around and noticed a woman, about 30 yrs old, leaning on the gate of a house and giggling looking at something straight ahead of her. The fact that I'm standing right in front of her, looking at her, did not seem to register in her mind at all. "Did I suddenly become invisible?", I wondered. Again, she went on talking, "Nee Eppavume Ippadithaan" (You're always like this).

Memorable London

The London 2012 Olympic Games are just about to conclude. More than 15 days of pure action with over 10,000 athletes competing in many different sporting events. As usual, the big sporting nations have amassed medals. The list of their medal winners alone extends to several pages in the official website. After a losing the top spot to China in 2008, USA has reclaimed the top spot in the medals table with 105 medals (including 45 Gold medals). China comes next with 87 medals (including 38 Gold). The Host UK has won a record haul of 29 Gold medals to come third in the table.

Right or Wrong?

"Namma Singari Sarakku Nalla Sarakku

Chumma Gummunu eruthu Kicku enakku" 

- blared our television in our living room.

I'm sitting with my parents, grandfather and an elderly uncle visiting us, watching a popular television show, when this song sequence made me squirm uneasily in my seat. I'm not uneasy only because of the raunchy (is it the right word?) lyrics, but also because of the person singing them. The song is being sung by a small kid probably about 7 or 8 years old. He has still not shed his baby talk and is not even able to pronounce the lyrics clearly. But here he is, on stage, in a popular musical contest singing this song. Only a few minutes back, another small girl sang, "Sorgam Madhuvile..."

Live - from Chennai Airport

It is 11:55 pm. I’m writing this blog (Though going to post it later) sitting at the passenger’s lounge beyond the security gates at the Chennai Airport, waiting for my flight out of the country. Right at this moment, the entire nation of 1.2 Billion (As per the latest census 2011 ) is in a jubilant mood. The scene is no different here at the airport – Strangers are wishing each other, the airport personnel are smiling ear to ear and are greeting passengers happily. What is the big occasion? – India has just won the cricket World Cup, after 28 long years.

Apple Halwa

There were too many apples at home and I was tired of just eating them raw. So, I decided to try making apple Halwa. It came out very well and every one said it tasted good :) But the sugar has suppressed the apple taste a little bit. I should try reducing sugar a little bit next time.

Here is the link to the recipe that I used: Apple Halwa from 'Aayi's Recipes'

Gobi Manchurian

I tried my hand at making Gobi Manchurian today. Came out pretty well. I'm happy that it tasted almost like it does at restaurants :) But it was quite a time consuming process though.

Recipe from: Awesome Cuisine, Quick and Easy recipes for you

Ironies of Life

Recently, I read a news article titled 'Paralympian regains legs, but dream lost' that caught my attention. It was a unique case, where a miracle that would be considered a divine blessing has actually shattered some really lofty dreams and ambitions. I really do not know if we should feel happy or sad for the individual concerned.

Outsourcing blues - Managing Client Politics

Every organization has its share of internal politics with so many different groups having conflicting interests. It is always a great challenge for a CIO to negotiate all these political alignments within the organization and implement an IT strategy spanning across different groups, departments, business units etc.

In most organizations, IT is still seen as a major cost center. While a lot of investments are required to build and maintain IT systems, the tangible benefits are less. The benefits may come in different form - increased sales, better employee productivity, higher customer satisfaction etc. But most of these benefits are intangible and cannot be expressed in numbers (profits). Hence it becomes very difficult for a CIO to convince the rest of the organization on investing more in IT systems.

While an 'in-house' CIO and IT department themselves have a huge task in negotiating the political alignments, the situation becomes even more challenging when you throw in an outsourcing vendor or worse, multiple outsourcing vendors. Although the practice of Outsourcing is fast spreading across the developed world, there are also a number of concerns among the employees of the outsourcing company - Loss of jobs, loss of control / power within their departments, distrust of foreign players etc.Under such circumstances, negotiating organizational politics of the client is one big problem faced by the vendors. More often than not, the vendors have to work with multiple departments and implement systems spanning across the organization. Being outsiders, they do not have the required political clout within the client company to force the warring parties to the negotiating table. The result - Non-cooperation, deliberate witholding of information, political manipulations, blaming the vendors for anything that goes wrong etc.

Kindle, iPad .... iTunes replayed?

A couple of months back, we were discussing the Ipod – Itunes phenomena in one of our classes. We were discussing the game changing effects of the Ipod – Itunes Combo which has completely re-organized the  entire value chain of the music industry.

Today, is the publishing industry poised for a similar shake up? The Kindles and the iPads are competing with each other coming up with new models and arrangements. The way customers approach books and other published content has been constantly changing over the years and these devices seem to be accelerating the pace.

Decade of Change - World through my lens

In my previous post, I had recollected the changes in my life over the past decade. Along the same lines, I also started thinking about the important events of the past decade that have affected our lives. The ones that I have mentioned here are those that popped into my mind as soon as I thought about the past decade. These are the events that caught my attention - Events that brought joy and also those brought great sorrow. They made us happy, elated, proud, shocked, sad, angry and sometimes even frustrated. Some of these literally transformed the world that we live in, while others had a more personal effect. I hope that a similar list drawn in 2020, will contain more of the joyful events and less of the tragic ones.

Decade of change: 2000 - 2009

During the last week of 2009, the newspapers were full of count downs, ‘Top ten‘, ’50 Best…’, ’50 worst…’ and other such recollections of the past decade. Along the same lines, I started thinking of the major events and changes in my own life over the past decade. It has been a decade of changes, especially in the external world. These have produced a big change in my life style.  It is amazing how life has changed with the fast changing pace of the external world !

2000 was a landmark year in my school life. I wrote my 12^th std board exams that year and joined an engineering college. I took computer science as my major because of the recent Y2K boom, because I hated electronics and also because my closest friend chose that stream in a college.

Avatar - parallels to our dark side

Most of my friends who saw the movie ‘Avatar’ were just blown away by the graphics, picturization and the creativity. To put in the words of my ever optimistic friend, the movie was just ‘beyond brilliant’ :) I too liked the movie for all the above reasons. But all through the time that I was sitting in the theatre, I was reminded of a few other things.

To me, the story is a reminder of the dark side of humans. All through the history, till today, we’ve been doing the exact same thing as depicted in the movie. Human’s greed for resources, power and control have repeatedly resulted in and still resulting in wars and destruction. 

Avatar - a technological masterpiece

After a long time, we went to a movie today – ‘Avatar’, the James Cameron blockbuster in 3D format.

Spoiler Warning: I have explained some parts of the story here. So, do not proceed if you do not want to know the story

The day was quite hectic. We had 4 classes today and had quite a few cases today. I was quite hesitant to go to the movie. But based on the very strong recommendations of those who had already watched it, I decided to go.

It is a 3D movie. This is James Cameron first movie after he released Titanic ten years ago. He has invested enormous time and effort into making this movie. And I’m sure this will be a great landmark in his career. 

Don't break the law... Don't sing 'Happy Birthday to you'

Did you know that you are commiting an 'offence' by singing the traditional 'Happy Birthday' song to your loved ones? I certainly didn't know this until our professor mentioned this while talking about coyrights and Intellectual property rights in class.  I dutifully surfed the net for details and here's what I found.

This tune of this song that is the most widely used and recognized across the world, comes from the song 'Good Morning to all' which was written and composed by American sisters Patty Hill and Mildred J. Hill in 1893. They were kindergarden teachers and composed this song for their students.

The song was copyrighted by the Summy company in 1935. The copywright was sold to Time Warner in 1990. Apparently, this copyright is valid till 2030. Currently Time Warner is charging USD 5000, every time this song is sung in public places, movies and performances. In 2008 alone, they have collected USD 2 million as royalties for using this song.

Source: The Absurdity of Copyright: "Happy Birthday to You"

So, the next time you are wishing your friend, you are voilating the law unless you pay royalty to Time Warner !!!

Ridiculous world of copyrights !!! - I'm thinking of getting a copyright for the word 'Hello'. So, everytime someone picks up the telephone and starts with this word, they have to pay royalty to me. I'm going to be a rich man !!!!