Trip to Sadda College NIT J aka REC Jalandhar

On a cold December morning, I received an email from one of the organizers of Techniti 2012 which contained an invitation to deliver a guest lecture at the event in the same engineering college that I am an alumnus of. Eko also sponsored the B-Plan competition at the event.

It had been 11 years since I had last walked out of the campus for good, so I thought it was a great opportunity to get back and check how it had fared after my departure ;-). Work had also been pretty hectic the past few weeks and thought this could be a good opportunity to take a break.

So, I confirmed my participation and told my folks that we would be going on a road-trip to sadda Punjab, sadda college. My folks did try to dissuade me from driving, but I persisted. Google maps told me that it was just around 400 Km from Delhi to Jalandhar- how bad could it be?


View Larger Map

Also, I remember when we were in the final semester; my good friend Rony and I had almost packed for a bike-trip (He had a Yamaha RX135? which all of us used to 'borrow' on campus) on this same route. We had helmets acquired and bags packed when at the last minute, his mom had managed to put in enough fear+tear pressure to scuttle our little adventure :(.

Trivia: The route we chose has a LOT of history riding on it. It is a segment of the Grand Trunk road that once stretched from Kabul to Calcutta and beyond. This was the road route which literally connected India to its history.

So, we started our journey on the 3rd March, exactly a week ago. It was a leisurely drive. Most of the road had been 4-laned, but there were patches where the work was still in progress. We stopped at a not-so-authentic '70 mile dhaba' and had aloo da paranthas with makkhan (chunk of butter) and daal makhani. Ah! For some strange reason it always taste better in a road-side dhaaba (road-side eatery for truckers and travelers).

 


It took us around 5 hours including a breakfast break to reach near Ludhiana. The road got more and more chaotic as we neared the center.

Trivia: Back in our college days, we knew Ludhiana as a place where a thousand little workshops ran a thousand lathes, where you could park a BMW and ask the legendary sardarji there to clone it and he could machine out one in a couple of days right from his lathe :-)!

The stretch from Ludhiana to Jalandhar was around 70 Km but took almost 2 hours!! Large stretches of the road were diverted due to the 4 lane construction activity. We reached Jalandhar sometime after 4 PM and debated whether we could go to Amritsar and Wagah border right away but decided to take rest instead. So we checked in at hotel Shekhon Grand (its a just-ok-for-rest kinda place) which had been booked by the organizers.

After we got fresh we went around for a drive through the city (town would be more appropriate). Visited Jyoti-chowk which was just about the only place which we used to visit from our college. Then I just drove for the heck of it, trying to see if I still remembered the route. Drove past the stadium, DAV college, Maqsuddan chowk, Suranussi and reached Bidhipur railway phaatak! (Encountered a flyover enroute and lots of working traffic lights- I am not very sure but I believe these things didn't exist back in our times)

Trivia: The new 4 lane thingy pulled a trick on me. I turned right into the main-road, expecting to pass by the college main gate where I could simply turn left and turn in. Would you believe that there is NO way you can turn into the campus from the main-road now except for taking a service lane right at Bidhipur junction OR go almost ALL the way down atleast 10 KM where this road begins!!! So if you ever decide to visit the college REMEMBER to take the service lane on the left; right at Bidhipur.

End result day 1: we went all the way to sadda college but ended up right where we had started back in sadda hotel room. Rest. Peace. End.

Day 2. Rise and shine. We started again at around 9. This time we clicked a few pics along the same route we had taken earlier.

Jyoti Chowk

Somewhere around Jalandhar

Sacred heart hospital

Random

The place right across our college
where all the rickshaws used to stop and
we used to walk across the railway track

Bidhipur faatak up ahead

At the faatak

Bidhipur Jn. See the dhaabas on the left?

Unfortunately, most of the dhaabas seem to have disappeared (or was I remembering it all wrong)! And I did NOT see any college kids loitering around here (kya zamaana aa gaya hai! -maybe its because it wasn't a normal working day).

Bidhipur, other side of the road

This used to be a dhaaba? Eek!

One that seemed to have survived

Bidhipur. more

The road that leads to the village, where we used to go for haircuts, STD calls, jalebis...

Leaving Bidhipur behind, we entered the service lane. Found that the little gate at the corner of the campus boundary wall is no longer there :(. The whole campus is now gated and barbed-wired I guess. So I arrive at the main gate and am greeted by security folks who jot down my name etc... lots of security folks all around. Thats a change.

Khul ja simsim.

Techniti Poster

What you'd see just after the gate roundabout

The security dude at the gate

The main gate

All four laned. See the concrete road dividers? Keeps gaadis from coming straight in

Now let me take you on a drive inside the campus. Much has changed. New buildings.

The new auditorium (the open air one is still there right opposite to this one)

Road to the guys hostels

New basketball court right before hostel no.1. There was a big gymnasium block as well right when you entered the main gate, on the left. Missed that one.

Hostel No. 1. Gated and all. With a security dedicated security dude cabin!

Hostel no. 1 again. First year was spent here. The gate was simpler back then. And you could jump (or be made to jump) out of ANY of the rooms on the ground floor. The security dudes were non-existent.

Hostel no. 3, the back side.

I guess the common entrance for Hostel no. 2 (where we had spent our second year) and the old PG hostel

Hostel no. 4. Notice the lawns and the closed gates? It used to be banjar land :) I think my room used to be on that face 1st/ 2nd floor.

The view after you exit hostel 4. The road less taken... ;)

The walkway that connects the boys hostel side to the main academic blocks.

If you take left after the hostels (towards the old jhuggi place). Now there is a round-the-clock eatery here!

The mechanical workshops block. The file-file-file sessions, the lathes, et al.

This place turns into marsh land come monsoons, where we once played water football (or whatever that was called)

The new auditorium entrance. This is where I got to speak :)

You can see the open air audi straight ahead.

The admin block octagon. Also used to house the Electronics, Instrumentation and Computer Science depts. Computer science has got a shiny new block all for itself. The others are under construction. So the admin block will be left doing pretty much nothing pretty soon.

Roundabout 2 just after the gate, looking backwards.

The guest house

The walkway to the academic blocks from the guest-house side.

The shop area. (Where are all the people?)

Thankfully there is an ATM here now. Anyone remember standing at the tiny window of SBP there begging to get your own money out, updating passbook and stuff? That I hope is history.

I dont think the book shop has survived. I don't know about happy's juice shop either.

Atleast there was food!

sadda department

That apparently is the new super-duper set of boys hostel that is being built APART FROM the existing 6 boys hostel blocks! Looks great.

Inside the admin block; the bust of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar still stands.

Thats our family right inside the octagon. This is apparently where the admin folks now take 'rest' from their hectic work schedules.

This is not an airport lounge area. This is the waiting area for the new computer labs block! See the admin block through the glass front?

On the ground floor is video conf room plus an amphitheater. This is the only building which has an elevator inside ;)

Some gaadi prototypes

They did take part in some big competition. Don't remember which

The back-side of I guess the mechanical department. See some guy working on a vehicle prototype there? Thats apparently the workshop where the vehicle prototypes you saw earlier were put together.
Makes me very glad to see that :)

This used to be the jhuggi. Proves that the theory of evolution has some truth it it ;)

The jhuggi road. Back-side of a lecture theater.

The all new multi-storied lecture theatre blocks being built.

This place is the same. Actually its much worse than it used to be.

Then, I was taken in to the auditorium where the short-movies competition was on. It was wonderful to watch the creativity of the people who were putting together really good short stories. I got to watch two of them and was invited to give away the prize to the winning team which made a comical movie called 'har friend zaroori hota hai' which was on how some friends pranks played on the other (and their girlfriends) come back to bite them in the end :) Fun.

Movie screening

Movie screening 2

Then came my talks where the audi was pretty empty (compared to the movie screening). Obviously :). Anyways, I spoke about trying to exhort them find what they really loved to do and to pursue that with passion. Seemed to have gone well.

Then spent some time with Arun Khosla sir (who is now the ECE HOD!) who showed around the new building being constructed for ECE department.

New Electronics and Communications Engineering block under construction

Prof. Arun Khosla, Utkarsh Vijay one of the organizers of Techniti

We also spoke about the need to set up an incubation center and supporting innovative projects (will write more on that on a separate thread later). Had a quick lunch at sir's house. Met Mamta Khosla mam and their two kids. Had a good time and then started on the trip to Amristar and Wagah border.

The road from Jalandhar to Amritsar was makhaan. Smooth. Covered the 90 Km in less than an hour. Then at the junction took the road that turns right towards Atari and the Indo-Pak border. The closing the gates ceremony starts at 5 but we could reach only by around 5: 15.

Enroute we saw something that the region is famous for: Kite flying. Some pics:

The ceremony at the Wagah border is theatrical to say the least. Some things have changed since I'd been here last. For example, I don't recall the stadium like grand-stands on both the sides where people actually crowd in everyday to watch the spectacle. Parking has become good business with a few fields converted into dusty parking lots and rickshaw walaahs flying you to the venue.

The atmosphere is super-charged, loud and electric. Beyond the gate lies Pakistan. In-between lies no-man's land. On either side they cheer the performance of their soldiers.

Link: Random wagah border ceremony video

We then reached The Golden Temple at night. The services being rendered by the faithful, the utter devotion and dedication and the simple beauty of the temple at night was mesmerizing. I need to do some more history reading to really know more of its history. Thats on my to-do list now.

Finally, we started back to Jalandhar. Reached Jalandhar at midnight. Started back to Delhi early next morning. We were back in Delhi by evening.

Trivia: Almost after Sonipat there was a grand Pind Balluchi restaurant on the left. We thought we could dig in to some Tandoori chicken. Unfortunately this place was all VEGETARIAN! Grand, but vegetarian. So be warned :).

A trip down the memory lane. Back to sadda Delhi from sadda punjab, sadda Jalandhar and sadda college. If any of you had any common threads with the places I visited, hope this has brought some fond memories.

Here's to hoping and wishing that this institution (NIT Jalandhar) rises above the ordinary; as a place where real innovation, research and leaders are made!

The dark underbelly of education: nursery admissions in Delhi

My daughter has been a part of a wonderful play school, has been an active participant in all its activities and its time to graduate. Its the time of the year where thousands of parents like me are trying to place our wards into 'proper' schools.

Apparently, for nearly 20,000 nursery seats in Delhi, over 2,00,000 children have applied! There is another stat which says that over 60% parents fill over 10 admission forms. My estimate is that the actual number of children applying might be closer to 30,000. Which still means that over 10,000 children will not make it to any school this year.

Two schools (Mirambika- I really liked the concept, and St. George- was right next to my workplace) that I tried to get a copy of admission form found my daughter over-aged for admissions for now (she missed the mark by ~24 days); so no forms from these two. St. George folks asked me to check back by March-April. Fair enough.

I ended up submitting the admission forms to 4 schools: Apeejay School, Vasant Valley, Ryan International and Bluebells. Vasant Valley's and Bluebells' list could not find a place for my daughter. Fair again. Apeejay is right next to where I stay and I hope it materializes- I should know in a few hours.

But this post is dedicated to Ryan International School, Vasant Kunj.

Last week, I was called to the school for 'document verification'. I went there with the documents required; including a document from the Vicar of the church that we attend, since they also required a 'relevant' proof we belonged to the Christian community

Anyways, there were close to maybe 10 parents who were asked to wait in the reception area. There were a few parents from other countries as well. The receptionist would call the name of the child/ parent who would dutifully walk up. The receptionist would then ask them to deposit their mobile phones (switched off) and bags against which she issued a green token with a number. I thought, wow! here's a school that seems to be meticulous and wants to ensure a smooth process by removing all distractions during the verification process. Naive me!

Moving on with the tale. My turn came after waiting for almost three quarters of an hour. I killed most of the time reading through most of the newspapers kept there, then I looked at the photographs of the Pintos (the esteemed founders) smiling and accepting various awards, standing alongside Benny Hinn...
I too switched off my phone, put in in my laptop bag and deposited it with the receptionist who gave me a round green plastic tag against it. I only had a transparent folder with originals of the documents required for verification with me. I was shown into a room to the receptionist's right. (This looked like some head master/mistress' room, I'm not sure). There were two ladies who looked at my documents- teachers perhaps. "Address proof" - passport - check, "Affidavit for the first daughter" - provided - check. "Birth certificate" - done - check. "Christian proof" - I found out that they were expecting a baptism certificate and that our Reverend Vicar's sign, seal and letterhead were not proof enough. (As if a few words written in a particular format would make someone 'more' Christian. I almost LOL-ed and duh-ed!). I remarked that I could get whatever certificates they needed and apologized for not having provided that in advance. They seemed satisfied and I moved out.

Back at the receptionist's desk, my bag was strangely missing. I was told that my bag could be collected at the exit point and that I had to wait a bit longer to meet the 'officials'. I then had to wait for around 5 minutes on a seat to the left of the receptionist. An usher came and then led me through the entrance right behind the receptionist, then to the right, right again into an office area. I could see bible verses stuck around in the office space (now I know the meaning of the phrase which says that even the Devil can quote the scriptures for his purpose). Then, left into a small cabin where an 'official' was sitting on the other side of a round table. I believe he was significantly bald, had a brown skin, probably in his forties. He had a printout list in front of him with the names of the applicants and he had a pencil with which he had scribbled some stuff against most names.

He then told me that I had to pay Rs. 90,000 in cash, no cheque, no draft, non-refundable.
I asked what the payment was for and he said it was related to 'admission fee'.
I asked if this could be split into installments and if the amount was negotiable; he said 'no'.
I asked if payment meant that my daughter would get the admission and he confirmed.
Still having not realized what exactly this was about, I said I needed time to find if I could arrange that kind of cash and said that I'd get back to him by the 28th of Jan (my savings balance was ridiculously low right then; I was already thinking of plan Bs).

I asked him for his card or phone number so that I could get back to him (stupid me!). He simply said that I couldn't reach him directly and that I should simply call in the school's landline and let them know. I told him that I atleast needed to know his name and he said J*. At the exit gate, I returned the green token to get my bag back. Thats when it really hit me that the reason why they had collected/ confiscated my stuff was the fear of being stinged out!

What education could these jokers possibly give to my child? Lesson 1: Methods of accepting kick-backs? Lesson 2: A sonnet on evading sting-ops? Lesson 3: How to leave no evidence. Lesson 4: Spot the whistle-blower?

Its the hypocrisy that struck me hard when I drove back home after the ordeal. There used to be a time when Christian institutions set a high bar with the standard of education, morals and ethics in this country. My family has been a part of this rich tradition. My parents and grandparents and most of my relatives in Kerala have provided exemplary service as teachers, principals and school administrators. They had imbibed Christian values where education was seen as a mission, even business; but certainly not as a dirty business. Every where they went they were welcomed with respect. I hope and pray from the bottom of my heart that my experience was a mere exception.

We celebrated our Republic Day on 26th January. While the grandeur of the procession played on my TV screen, I was crying at the charade. We seem to derive some morbid satisfaction with this fake facade of 'Incredible India', while deep within the cancerous rot chews on.

Perhaps I am missing something? Putting on an economist's hat- perhaps this is a natural outcome of the demand and supply gap? The limited supply simply gets costly thanks to the great demand? Even 'costly' should have been a fine proposition; if it was legitimate, open and transparent.

All in all, this has the following implications:
a. The planning and strategy folks of this country have messed up (do we even have these departments?)
b. The government and the administration has screwed up by slipping on the same banana peel again, year-after-year. Oops, we have a shortage again.
c. We need to think of innovative disruptions to address the very real need for educating and equipping the next generation. For me the most valuable part of school education is the social interaction bit.
d. My daughter most probably will not get an admission this year in Delhi (there is still a <10% chance that she just might; I'll keep you posted)

A lot of people seem to need a wake up call while a lot of others should be spared sleepless nights.
4 AM and signing off.

Ubislate aka Aakash aka sub-100-dollar-computer

I've had very neutral thoughts on the Ubislate. Was this good or bad? Are we taking the world one generation back by championing a non-cutting-edge processing machine? Yes, but does that matter more than ensuring that a billion more people get computing in the first place? Absolutely not. A smart compromise that could enable a wider range of people taste computing is what I believe this project is- to assume and glorify it as anything else would be pretty presumptuous at this point. That alone is a worthy goal to pursue :).

I was prompted by this great post on the wsj:
http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2012/01/08/the-inside-story-of-indias-50-computer-tablet/

The following extracts are interesting:

1. Why technology being cutting-edge does not ensure that it is the best fit. Its right-fit relevance and sense of ownership that actually matter.

" Tuli also notes an anecdote about OLPC deployment in Cambodia, where the laptop’s reliance on a Wi-Fi mesh network meant that most remote villages effectively had no means of connectivity. “When they checked on those villages a month later, they found that elders were getting kids to hand-crank the batteries so that the laptops could be used as a light source. That was the killer app for the OLPC: Light.”

2. How the pace of growth in technology has and will continue to catch us unawares ;-)

The $50 barrier seems to have been the big milestone, but it’s not the only one. “The fact is, back in 1984, when I bought my first Mac computer, with a black and white screen and 5 megabytes of memory, it cost $5000 — and just the cable to connect it to a printer cost $50,” says Tuli. “If someone asked me back then if I thought a full-color computer with multiple gigs of memory could be sold for the price of a cable, I’d have said ‘No way. Never. That’s ludicrous.’”

 Another blow to the digital divide! Three cheers to it, whichever way this ends!

Friday market - shukkar bazaar

No. of such stalls: ~100
Avg TPS: ~0.1
Tx Value Min: Rs. 5
Tx Value Max: Rs. 200
Tx Value Median: Rs. 30
USP: Fresh veggies, fruits once-a-week, best price - group buying discounts that work for real, in real-time
Tip: The stalls are set up by around 6 PM. Prices are the least after 10:30 PM (usually stocks last that long) :)

Very prevalent across north India. Usually some road converts to a market for a day/ night. The market gets the name it operates on, eg: shukkar bazaar on shukrawar 'friday'. Most used to run on kerosene lamps earlier on. Nowadays, all work on rechargeable emergency lamp batteries + CFL tubes. Some places have a leased diesel generator from where the genset provider provides a twisted pair cable with a bulb + CFL tube that the stall owner dangles on some support. A pure opex model.

Interestingly, none of them write/ display their prices :). People ask and they tell- a ritual that repeats a thousand times! The prices are reactive and can literally change every minute (based on the stall next to it, the customer's profile, time of the night, stock left- there seems to be no fixed mathematical formula- all in their mind!).

Most of the bigger format stores close by (Reliance Fresh etc..), for some reason, are not able to compete with the quality+price offers here. The produce in those stores are either of very bad quality or very highly priced! Wonder if the new Retail FDI thingy is going to make any difference.

Despair

I know despair is a part of life,
I know its a valley with a cliff beyond,
But when I sink down into its depths,
I just forget that its just a dive!

PS: These are the only 4 lines I remember of something I had penned a long time ago :(
:)

On mediated usage

The developing world, as the term seems to suggest; is at a stage that the developed world had crossed (or in some cases, even entirely skipped) being in at some point in time. I believe, mediated usage is a stage that most human interactions pass through initially.

Lets start from a simple but overkill-ish example. Ever heard of Bill Gates? The influential figure whose contributions range from the technology world to global policy world. Once upon a time, even he was a little baby in a diaper who could barely say 'ga-ga' and had to be fed, cleaned, clothed and taught by someone. The point I am trying to make is that doing things on our own, is not as natural or as normal as it seems. Self-transaction (of any kind) is a stage of evolution that is built upon multiple previous and related instances of mediated transactions. While mediated usage is like experiencing things using basic arithmetic, self-usage is more like calculus. In ones arrogance of context and experience, solving a differential equation might seem 'obvious' and 'simple'; try imagining what you'd have made of it as a fourth grader (if you were a calculus prodigy, sorry, this example does not apply to you). There is a certain threshold that one needs to cross before being able to be autonomous.

Let me now move to another example. Vending machines. Modern vending machines have apparently been around since the 1880s in the west! The first time I saw a vending machine was a Chocolate/ Magazines (Cadbury's?/ Malayala Manorama - don't remember which one) vending machine at an Indian railway station in the 1990s. Interestingly, there was a chair (with a person sitting) right next to it! To get a Dairy Milk bar, one had to give this person the money, he'd hand back the change from his cash-till and he would put in some kind of a special token into the machine, punch some buttons and hand over the goods that the machine spit. More often than not, he had to put in his key, open the beast up and manually retrieve what he had to from its innards. Something drove the company to invest in a layer of mediation while transplanting something that seemed to simply work by itself in the west. You'd note that the vending machine was actually made redundant by this layer of mediation. The company might as well have put a dumb shopping-shelf instead! Well, I think there is a reason to it- a longer term purpose- we'll come to that.

My most recent sighting of vending machines in India was in the new International Terminal of the New Delhi Airport. I guess these were from Pepsi co. Just for the heck of it, I tried following the instructions for a fruit-drink pack. Try as I might, the thing wouldn't take my ten rupee note! Finally, a guy came around with a bunch of keys, opened the machine up and gave me what I wanted :). Note the guy wearing a cap with a bunch of notes? He's the 'vending machine mediator'.


ATMs in India are a great example of how mediated usage has over time, evolved into self-transactions. Quite a few ATMs in India had and continue to have security guards posted outside them. Many a times, when first time users get stuck, they actively seek the help of these guards. It is interesting to note how an immediate need (for cash) or the aspirational need for becoming an ATM user drives people to trust near-strangers. We human beings are inherently 'social' and at times take decisions based on emotional reasons and relative perceptions of risk vs. reward rather than rational algorithmic ones.
(Dude: "Siri- should I ask the security dude outside this ATM to help me with my withdrawal?"
Siri: "Of course not! Your mom says, don't talk to strangers!")

PCO or the Public Call Office phenomenon is another uniquely Indian one. Long before mobile phones got in vogue and when there used to be year-long waiting lists for getting dumb rotary dial land-line phones, the then visionaries had a brainwave: That of entrusting atleast one phone line in every village with a local entrepreneur and enabling him to meter and charge for the call. Not very long ago (when mobile phones were a super luxury), when I was an engineering student at NIT J, we used to go to the village right next to our college ('Bidipur') and queue up outside the STD PCO booth there once every week (late night- they had discounted tariffs then ;))  to make a long distance phone call to our parents. Thankfully, we are in a different era/ planet now! PCOs still exist and still continue to be relevant in some parts of the country. What was interesting about the PCO was the way many of the villagers used it. They carried a paper chit with the destination number scribbled on it. They would dutifully hand it over to the booth operator who would dial the number on their behalf and once the call was connected; make an introductory announcement and hand over the mouthpiece to the caller to proceed with whatever publicly private conversation he/ she had to make.

The point is; that the option of having that mediated transaction enabled the poor villager to access a service he/ she needed which the person otherwise would not have. Over a period of time, (as is evident with the mobile telephony boom we are witnessing now), people do get over their barriers and learn whatever minimum viable product/ service that they need to use. But having an external spark, sure helps start the fire.

The last example I'd like to give shows cultural inclinations for mediated usage. India has millions of small mom-n-pop shops (grocers, chemists, textile vendors, 'paan' shops et al). Unlike the west, where people drive down to the closest mall once a month and stuff their cars with all the super-sized things they think they might need; in India, a mother would send her son/ daughter with a small list and the list could be as small as a single item ("Son, please go and get 200g sugar- hurry, I have already put the porridge on the pan!") The son would then run (or cycle) to the friendly next-door grocer (usually, no fake smiles or smile-badges here, strictly and simply business-friendly), buy the stuff wrapped in an old newspaper (+ two candies bought slyly with the spare change) and run back home- just in time for the mother to add it to the heating brew.

Self-service larger format stores are a very recent addition to the Indian retail landscape. But despite their discount offers and the promise of getting everything under a single roof, its been difficult for them to threaten the well-entrenched next-door shop's mediated shopping model. This is because culturally, we have been used to this kind of shopping (with the bargaining sessions, touch and feel instances, recite-the-shopping-list and someone hands you the goods in a jiffy shopping, mental arithmetic/ scribbled bills, moles and warts and everything that comes with it). Simply because it seems more human to us. Perhaps the next generation in the urban context may not share this perception.

Eko also leverages mediated usage to the hilt. Its promise of simplified banking and financial transactions presents a HUGE trust barrier that potential customers need to cross. While we believe that self-transactions are but a natural extension to enabling such an access, mediation of transactions through these trusted shops (where people have been buying their groceries/ medicines for years) is a great base to build on.

An important principle we've always believed in is that customers are not stupid. While this might sound like a strong statement to make, it is relevant in the context that many people still design services and solutions for the less-privileged as if they were lesser people! They might not be very educated and may not tote an iPhone but they are smart and nothing implies that they are stupid. The fact that they use mediation is not a measure of the weakness of the customer, but rather a measure of the strength of the mediator. The act of mediation represents a basic human-bond of symbiotic needs; customers' trust in the shopkeeper and the shopkeeper's need to have customers. There would of course be bad apples, people who could misuse their position of trust. The antidote is in having efficient selection and monitoring systems to weed them out.

Gist:
Mediation is natural and human.
Mediated usage helps in facilitating customer adoption of new services.
Mediated usage is a good stepping stone towards self-reliance.
Mediated usage has a social, cultural and economic context.

Further reading:
Jan Chipchase,
  CGAP Blog on mobile banking mediated use
  Shared Phone use
  Designing Mobile Money use
Microsoft research, on inter-mediated usage

To The Tech-Mecca and Back

The Silicon Valley is undoubtedly the most important place as far as high technology is concerned. It has all the major technology companies that power the internet age - Apple, Google, Cisco, Intel et al. ALL of these concentrated within a relatively small geographical area south of San Francisco.

View Larger Map

Eko was named as a laureate for this year's The Tech Awards - a prestigious event and a great great honor. I thus got a chance to tag along Abhishek and Abhinav and spend a good week in the silicon valley - The Tech Mecca, (and then back to reality :). 

It all started with an 18 hour Emirates flight from Delhi, via Dubai and over the North Pole to San Francisco International. On an airport shuttle, we traveled to San Jose, the uncrowned capital of the Silicon Valley.

The Tech Awards is a signature program held by The Tech Museum, San Jose, in association with the Santa Clara University. What stuck me was the grand global vision that the relatively small museum had (for a start, it calls itself 'THE' Tech Museum)! For the last 11 years, it has been seeking out, encouraging and supporting enterprises around the world that were trying to play meaningful and transformative roles in Environment, Economic Development, Equality, Education and Health. The program is sponsored by technology majors like Applied Materials, Intel, Flextronics (the sponsor for our award), Microsoft, Nokia and the Swanson Foundation. 


There is another great signature program for the Tech Museum - its called the Grand Challenge. I hope someday soon, we will be able to have something similar for students in India!

Stanford University

We also got a chance to visit and Abhishek got a chance to speak to a class at the Stanford University. The campus itself is so picturesque and grand; with such a great legacy that just being on that campus inspires you to think big. Imagine what would happen if you're tutored there ;)? Ans: You get to be Larry Page, Sargey Brin, Peter Thiel, Jerry Yang, Azim Premji, Ray Dolby or Vinton Cerf :)

Close to Stanford University is the Sand Hill Road - one street lined with all the major VCs. Guess why they have parked themselves right outside the university gates :) ?

From what I could observe, the valley is what it is because of three main reasons:
1. Climate. Seems to be just right! I'd call it nice cold and nice sunny. No sweat.
2. All migrants. I think I read somewhere that it was a place which did not have incumbents. Its 'history' hardly stretches back a few centuries. It perhaps represents a very open and forward looking culture.
3. Infrastructure. Things were just in place. To someone coming from India, even simple things like the highway networks, buildings, traffic lights that work, reliable electricity and water seemed awesome. While it is true that the sheer volume of the needs in India are daunting, we seem to have stretched this excuse way too far.
Consider the presence of just the Stanford University and its contribution! Even access to capital could be considered an essential infrastructure and silicon valley seems to have a surfeit of it!

At the Golden Gate Bridge

We couldn't get time to travel much, but we did travel to the Golden Gate bridge and gazed at Alcatraz from our vantage point. I also got to meet my college batch-mate Tapish and my brother Arun..

Jetlag (this thing is for real!) prevented any further ambitions of venturing out - something hit us so hard by the time the sun went down that we could hardly force an eye open.



Thursday, 20th October was the gala. That was a really grand gathering marked by meticulous planning and impeccable execution. It was encouraging to have Patrick from Creation Investments (the folks who have invested in us) with us at the gala. Silicon valley was well represented by top executives, VCs and well-wishers. It took some time for the realization to sink in that the net worth of that hall, that evening, should have been a pretty impressive $billions figure :)!

Also, each year, an individual is honored through the Global Humanitarian Award- this year's recipient was Jeff Skoll (An active philanthropist and a maverick movie producer- An Inconvenient Truth, American Gun, The Kite Runner and the erstwhile employee number one for eBay). Previous recipients include Bill Gates, Gordon Moore, Dr. Mohammad Yunus and Al Gore.




There were over 600 nominees, 15 laureates (5 in each category) and 5 grand prize winners. The names of the grand prize winners of $50K were revealed only during the gala, when Abhishek and Abhinav were on-stage. The sense of joy and exhilaration when Eko was named as a winner was amazing. Equally awesome were all the other laureates and winners. My personal favorite was WeCareSolar represented by its founders Dr. Laura and her engineer husband Hal. Their innovation was a solar power unit that fits in a suitcase and provides the necessary power and lighting required for medical procedures, especially related to child-birth; in developing countries. There is nothing technologically earth-shattering about most of these innovations, its their simplicity and appropriate use in solving real world problems efficiently that makes them noteworthy. Their solar suitcases for instance have already saved a lot of lives!

Check out Abhishek's acceptance speech video:


That was an amazing week! One last thing...

The Trophy

The trophy that we received aptly summarized the spirit of the silicon valley. On the bottom is a solid ingot of silicon (The same thing that is sliced into neat wafers and each slice could give birth to a set of microchips). On top of it rests a crystalline globe. The modern world literally runs on silicon. The Silicon Valley therefore is closely intertwined with all of our lives.

Here's a technologists salute to all the people who make the valley what it is.

To The Tech Museum, CSTS Santa Clara University, Leslie, Andy, Lee, Mike - and all the others who led us through the entire process- thank you!


[It took me quite a few sessions to finish this blog post- its been almost a fortnight now!]


That weekend, we returned home -recharged. 
To newer heights!

The Entrepreneur's Song

Are you looking at the same cloud that I am?
Can't you feel the sun beyond?
Do you see that faint silver-lining?
Though the dull pall abounds?
Are you looking at the same stars that I am?
Can you see the moon full-round?
Don't you love the life you’re living?
Though the sure grave's just yond?

A walk in the park, a dance in the rain,
The smile of a child, the touch of a friend,
A call from within, a battle cry raised,
The road less traveled, mountains untread,
A cry unmasked, a pain that's felt,
The promise unspoken, that unwoven thread,
Little things that just might spark a grand trend,
Or, just lift when you’re fallen to fly again.

I am not Anna

With the chants of 'I am Anna' almost saturating the already humid Delhi August, the media and the country, let me attempt a mutiny of sorts by putting myself in the 'other' camp. The other camp consists of the Cornered party who were unwittingly caught in this tangle. This is their story.

Note: 'I am not Anna' is a fictitious concoction brewed with generous inspirational doses of jokes that should have increased the August ARPUs of our mobile network operators. This is pure uncorrupt fiction - as much a work of art as doodles on Dilbert's whiteboard. Any resemblance to any real characters is purely coincidental - as coincidental as the inevitable scratch on the glossiest BMWs temptingly swaying on the Delhi roads.

This is a faithful reproduction of what really fictionally happened:

...................

I am M for S&T: I have called this important meeting to discuss a very serious issue brought to our notice by our honorable M for S. Our budding sports-women are unable to learn more on the great sports-woman Anna K anymore! It seems Oogle folks are upto some mischief again. I've got proof! Here, read this SMS someone sent me last midnight, it seems Oogle is now spitting out: 'Displaying results for Anna H. We're sure you didn't mean any other Anna'

I am M for S: Preposterous! This calls for a defamation motion, someone is trying to malign my name and the serious sports research being done in this country. I always suspected that Oogle was behind the Cee We Gee thingy as well!

I am M for S&T: Hmm... this seems to be a calculated campaign. Last week I typed 'Laptops for $34.5' and Oogle spit back sleaze with the header: 'Did you mean lapdance for $134.5? That seems more likely'.
I know technology and their software cant be that dumb! I suspect the foreign hand here.

I am M for D: Arrey sahab, I say Oogle is a threat to our national security! Last weekend I got lost in the 400 room you-know-which-palace; I searched on Oogle Maps on my indiPad for the nearest toilet - I am getting old and need to relieve myself pretty frequently; it said something like ... 'Sorry we don't have maps here at that zoom level. Try the woods!' This is a serious threat, what if... Shudder!

I am Advisor: Sir... I think there might be a way to get back at these people who are trying to topple our Cornered government.

I am M for S&T: Shabbash beta! Put your experience from Gold Men Sacked to some good use now.
(turning to the others) This youngster is full of bright ideas. He advised me on the fingerprint based indiPad assisted farming project for the poor farmers. Instructional videos from all those international professors and salsa lessons for entertainment free on their subsidized indiPads! All the farmers are already being enrolled for the Big-Brother-Is-Watching-You Identification (BBWYI) program- for their fingerprints.

I am M for E: (mumbling) Sir... these are poor farmers... even if we were to give them these devices for free... we have an issue with Power...

I am M for S&T: Silence M for E! All power and glory to Madame Prima Donna! Shut up if you don't want to get whacked. We have NO issues with power, do we?... Anyway, Advisor beta, please continue...

I am Advisor: Here's the plan: please listen to the whole story before interrupting me. Trust me I was the resident Oogle SEO expert at Gold Men Sacked!

So here goes... I will have our former M for S (yes, he is resting at our Sihar guest house, but he can still pull a few strings in his sleep) arrange a surprise 20-30 cricket match (we Indians are suckers for the willow) this weekend. Meanwhile, I will ask our special envoy to fly in on an emergency diplomatic chopper with Anna K to the cricket stadium- she will be our chief guest. Tonight, we will announce a press briefing where I'll invite all the journos in the city to cover the match and Anna K's latest swimsuit. The press and the internet will be flooded with Anna K. I know how Oogle's SlotGame Rank system works inside out! Within an hour Anna K will be back for good on Oogles pages!

Now comes the anti-climax... (wink) We sure don't want Anna H to walk in to the stadium and poach all the attention, do we? He's been talking something about indefinite fast- this could be a strategic Oogle SEO move by the fast food chain MyDonals!... (pausing for an effect and allowing his smartness to sink in)... So. While the media gets busy with the surprise 20-30, lets sneak up before sunrise and arrest Anna H. I know our journos are night owls, they would be fast asleep in their OB vans at that time on a weekend; neither their cat nor their mole will ever know!

I am M for S&T: Brilliant! I must get a seat near Anna K in the stadium. Dear 'I am M for H', please take care of the Anna H fellow, lock him up or do whatever- zero tolerance for people who are a threat to our democracy and are wasting our precious time. Madame Prima Donna should be delhighted! (turning to his advisor) Beta... I must recommend you for a promotion - good job!

...................

The rest they say is history. Anna K refused to travel on the envoy's chopper and the 20-30 match never happened. The police however lived up to their expectation and their briefing - they arrested Anna H. Anna H instead announced that he wanted the stadium for his fast. Now their Oogle SEO strategy turned upside down! The entire country got out on the streets. Cornered party got completely cornered! ... and as you've all just read- it all started with an SMS joke sent by a good friend of mine that midnight.

School of thought

When I look back at the 'education' I've got, I realize how worthless most of it (not all) has been. Arguably, the system is geared towards giving a pretty broad foundation on which individuals are supposed to build their sophisticated lives on. Education could thus be summarized as the spray-and-pray approach at the bottom and you-better-find-your-groove expectation as you get older.



If the aim of early schooling is to provide an awareness of the limitless options available and to enable a student to choose one when he is ready to - that is a worthy cause! But what if this ends up creating a generation of 'exam writers' ? Unhappy and corrupt citizens? People who can crack question papers problems but not real-life problems? I would not be very wrong if I say that this is what we have ended up with in India. There is a looming talent deficit that this emerging economy has to deal with. More worryingly, a good percentage of 'graduates' that this country churns out, are marked as unemployable! Recently, my colleague Mansi lent me her book 'Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman' to read. The book is a collection of anecdotes of the Nobel Prize winning, Richard Feynman. First published in 1985! What is interesting in that book is his critique on the education system that existed in Brazil. Excerpt (click this link on Rob Shearer's site to read more):

The lecture hall was full. I started out by defining science as an understanding of the behavior of nature. Then I asked, “What is a good reason for teaching science? Of course, no country can consider itself civilized unless… yak, yak, yak.” They were all sitting there nodding, because I know that’s the way they think.
Then I say, “That, of course, is absurd, because why should we feel we have to keep up with another country? We have to do it for a good reason, a sensible reason; not just because other countries do.” Then I talked about the utility of science, and its contribution to the improvement of the human condition, and all that – I really teased them a little bit.
Then I say, “The main purpose of my talk is to demonstrate to you that no science is being taught in Brazil!”
I can see them stir, thinking, “What? No science? This is absolutely crazy! We have all these classes.”
So I tell them that one of the first things to strike me when I came to Brazil was to see elementary school kids in bookstores, buying physics books. There are so many kids learning physics in Brazil, beginning much earlier than kids do in the United States, that it’s amazing you don’t find many physicists in Brazil – why is that? So many kids are working so hard, and nothing comes of it.If Feynman landed in India, I am sure he would have penned a similar chapter. Interestingly, Indians who continue their studies abroad seem to do well for themselves. The institutions abroad seem to be able to instill something in them that makes them thrive.

On the eve of India's Independence Day, let me attempt at putting together what I would really have wanted my school(s) to have taught me.


'The School of Thought' would only define the minimum education required, the maximum would be up to the students. The idea is NOT to enable them to recite the definition of addition, but the ability to actually add any two numbers up.


The following would be the ONLY mandatory subjects:


1. Language.
Two languages, English and the mother-tongue.
Alphabet. Words. Grammar. Phrases. Sentences. Prose. Poetry. Songs. Stories.
The pupil must be able to tell stories and read and understand stories.


2. Arithmetic.
Numbers. Counting. Concepts behind Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication and Division. Tables. Mental Arithmetic. Estimation.
The pupil must be able to handle all the calculations required in daily life.


3. People.
Self. Others. Family. Friends. Acquaintances. Colleagues. Life Partners. The Opposite Sex.
Listening. Thinking. Meditating. Caring. Negotiating. Integrity. Context. Diversity. Perception.
The pupil must be able to understanding what he/ she needs and expressing it. Grasping different contexts, people, body language. Speaking tactfully. Understanding what others want.


4. Money.
Saving. Borrowing. Lending. Taxes. Giving. Make a living. Enjoying work- doing what you love doing. Starting a small enterprise. Planning for a big one. Value of having/ not having. How does money work?
The pupil must understand the need and value of money, the nature and effects of its uneven distribution. Understanding what money can't buy.


5. Searching.
How to search for information? Optimal formation of keywords. Synthesizing information. Scanning through large data sets to get what you need.
The pupil must understand that transforming data into information creates value. Must be able to do that and use the information to get literally anything.


6. Happiness.
Staying alive. Staying safe. Games. Sports. Health. Team play. Arts. Music. Enjoying nature. Religion.
Maximizing life and joy.


7. Thinking.
Logic. Reasoning. Things beyond logic? Questioning. Controlling thoughts. Wrong? Right? Role of the community in forging individual thoughts.
The pupil must be able to spend time thinking and be able to capture the gist of their thoughts, understand which aspects have been influenced- consider the nature of each influence.


8. Exposure and experience.
Reading at least a book a week. Keeping notes. Movies. Imagining and accepting the possibilities of worlds and contexts beyond what is obvious and proximate. Exploring Nature. Places. Traveling. Understanding issues that different people face. Empathy.


In my opinion, the 8 subjects above are the building blocks. If a student masters the skills above, there is no subject that will be beyond his/ her reach. Physics, Chemistry, Botany will be things that they would naturally and out of their curiosity; be able to explore- or not! This country; any country for that matter, needs thousands of smart workers, farmers, artists, authors, administrators and politicians not just engineers and doctors. Its time this school of thought is given a 'School of Thought'. If we get this ONE thing right, we do not need to worry about anything else. Corruption, lack of infrastructure, inequality and a thousand other wrongs can be set right only through the light of knowledge.


Nothing captures this better than Gurudev's timeless words:

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action--
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

- Rabindranath Tagore.