Inner Metamorphosis

Public speaking is one of my interests and I like to observe and study the speakers’ style. Based on my experiences, I have noted some pertinent points that constitute a good performance. Clarity: Some feel that using corporate jargon creates a strong impression. But words like “innovation”, “transformation”, “management” etc have been done to death and no longer register an impact. Use of simple words helps people concentrate directly on your point instead of waving through the jargon to understand your point. Language is a tool to communicate your thoughts – it is not the end-product by itself. In writing, the reader can go through the content over and again till he gets the point. In speech you have no such luxury; you must reach your audience right in the first time. And if a listener fails to grasp you more than twice or thrice, you have positively lost his attention for the rest of speech. Brevity: Blame it on our s...

I often used to wonder how Indians with little prior access to computers became a global player in IT industry within a short span. There were multiple forces – the combined effect of which led to the explosion of IT market in India. Here I approach this from a different perspective based on my understanding of Indian culture. Artificial Language Computers run on artificial (i.e. fully man-made) languages developed from scratch. There is a mathematical certainty about them – they’re supposed to be used in particular ways though there’s scope of creativity within the framework. One may notice that beyond the root terminologies, there is nothing arbitrary in the grammar of artificial languages. On the contrary, in English we’re given to understand many arbitrary assumptions which shouldn’t be probed further. Pronunciation often varies widely with written word. So in the history of mankind, we always had natural languages that evolved over a period of time with certain ar...

You must give it to Congress government for successfully diverting the whole nation’s attention from its inadequacies to FDI in retail sector. It’s become a hot debate in webosphere and blogosphere. I have been reading different opinions from different ideologies and will use this platform to discuss more on this. The outrage against the move is widespread and there are common concerns prevailing out there.   I’ll try to answer the main concerns in this regard. Concern# 1 : Kirana shops will be wiped out. When organized retail like Big Bazaar first entered Indian market, there were similar concerns. But 10 years down the lane, I have not seen kirana shops closing down drastically. They remain in business despite the clear edge organized retail has over them. Imagine asking somebody not to open decent shop with modern facilities next to a primitive one as it will force the other out? Its competition boss ! Concern #2 :  Will cause large scale unemployment...

Indian market is yet to fully appreciate web marketing – one would gather this going by the static nature of most websites. My focus in this piece would be to understand how websites and online efforts can pay off handsomely with little investment. Introduction The costs involved in out-of-home marketing in India is quite staggering – enough to keep any budding company at bay. While this could be the right medium for large businesses, it simply doesn’t work out for small and medium enterprises. Most of these are startups that operate on a niche business or are able to achieve economies of scale due to certain market situations. They benefit usually by exploiting the gap which is left open by large enterprises. Their continuation then depends on how long they are able to maintain the profitability that ensures their survival without scaring or luring larger enterprises. Thus, the customers pertaining to such businesses are a smaller segment that lay scattered acros...

--> “Every conscious virtue   is an effort to conceal or correct a secret vice.” – Baruch Spinoza, Dutch Philosopher. (Spinoza here puts in one line what psychologists speak in volumes.!!  ) There are few interesting observations I have come across these days which make me feel that our understanding of intelligence and skill is somehow incomplete.( Maybe the varied public perception of me as wide and paradoxical as intelligent, stubborn, arrogant to dumbo, confused, etc has something to do with this introspection). Four months into work, for the first time, I am seeing world to be as complex as it really is. Never was a dynamics of human emotions was so clear and the traditional categories like “good” and “bad” as SRK says in MNIK appear so naïve. It is a common phenomenon that in our earlier schooling days we tend to look to toppers as absolute numero-uno i.e. complete supremacy over “intelligence” etc etc. This concept obviously is skewed for intel...