Conditions Apply!!!

Need for Speed!!!

Well, speed breakers are actually put in place so that people do not speed through a particular spot. Not sure what to say about such speed breakers which motorists conveniently have redesigned to defeat the exact purpose they are meant to serve.

Translation Issues

Sign at the Borabudar World Heritage Site in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. I actually felt like, well, scratching myself whenever I saw this sign (and there are quite a few of them around the temple).

Clear Location Specifications

Gate numbers displayed on the lawns of the Jakarta Airport

Design Logic

Polycon in one of our Sub-Saharan offices

Color Code

Was pulled up twice in the Nigerian and India immigration desk for using a red pen instead of the customary black or green. Though application forms do recommend colors, immigration forms don't mention any and was actually surprised that I might not be doing the right thing by choosing Red to fill the forms.

Localization and Neutralization

The Red Cross and Red Crescent Organization carries a different logo in different countries to meet the cultural and religious beliefs of countries. At the Dubai Airport you can see the Red Crescent instead of the Red Cross that you would be used to.

Exams and Results

Happened to read Aamir Khan's blog about SSC results in the below link.

http://www.aamirkhan.com/blog/login.php?topicid=709

Reminded me of what my dad did when I was in Medical School.I had failed in the BioChemistry exams. That for a person who had never gotten a rank below the 2nd place throughout my schooling career and a rank among a 1000 in competitive exams was tough to digest.

I did not want to hide the results and told my parents on what had happened. My mom started shouting the roof off the house. Dad just came by and put a hand on my shoulder. He said, "Son,if I scold you or punish you, you might think that you have been punished for a mistake and feel clean. The chances are you will repeat the same mistake again. I will not speak about this again and don't give me a chance to speak to you like this again." That did it. I was so lost for words and the guilt of letting them down overwhelmed me. I kept my promise and so did my dad. I never gave him a chance to speak to me about results again.

Whatever happens, Dad's are dad's and they are great. Love you Dad!!!

Meanderings

14 countries, 85 cities, forgot the number of road trips I have made, most of them unplanned. But there is something special about this one place in India.

It was the year of 2000, the leap century year. The only one my generation of folks will see. The best thing about the year was that we had completed our degree and were interning in a government hospital in Tumkur. That year one of the best movies in Bollywood released - Dil Chahta Hain.

Me and Lal were playing the NFS game in Rock's room one morning when Balls came by. He said he was feeling bored and wanted to go somewhere. Suddenly we remembered that I had an invitation from someone to come to their native for a very big festival in their state. Me (Meanderer), Balls (ashwin Balaji) and Lal (alwin Lal) at that moment decided to head there. With 10K borrowed cash from Dutta we headed out. The train from Bangalore was filled with people, we managed to sit on the footstand for half the journey with a litre bottle of pre-mixed coke in hand. We managed to reach in one piece to a smallish town in the state and also found a room to stay in.

The next day we headed to the backwaters of a dam which bordered 2 states. We got on to the open diesel boat that took the people into the water mass. There was a narrow passage between 2 submerged hills that took us into this beautiful artificial lake formed by the dam water. Bordering the lake is a national reserve. The greenish blue water, the elephants that were drinking from the lake, the bisons, the playful otters, OH MY GOD!!!

Then it happened, I was looking at the hills that were covered with long grass. The sun was setting and he gave a magical golden touch to the bright green blades of grass. I was looking at the hills awed at the beauty and thinking that this was heaven on earth, then the wind blew over the hills. The bright green blades of grass flipped as the wind passed through them and exposed the silvery underside of the grass blades. In one mexican wave after another the stadium of Thekady played out for us. The gloden green grass with each wave flipped and shone bright silver.

I was there in God's Own Country - Kerala. And with all the travelling I have done to date, I still believe it is the most beautiful place on planet Earth. Balls, Lal and I vowed that we would go there for our honeymoons and meet 10 years to that exact date in the same place with most probably our wives and kids.

I kept my honeymoon promise with the place. Lal went on to become an anaestetist and currently practises in Trivandrun living with his wife and son. Balls is a practising ENT surgeon in Bangalore blessed with a daughter. Guys, if you are reading this, the date is nearly on us. It will be 10 years in a few days from now when we took that vow. Do you wanna join me in God's Own Country celebrating the one thing that I have valued a lot... our Friendship???

Hippocratic Oath - mHealth; Hey it's Free!!!

Though there are a different set of audience and different kinds of mHealth services that are already monetized, it goes to show that for health related services, the initial adoption has to be driven by making it free. Once the user sees value in the offering the willingness to pay will also be there.


Does mHealth really need to be free?
Wednesday - June 23rd, 2010 - 11:00am EST by Brian Dolan | 3GDoctor | AT&T | Center for Connected Health | iPhone | mhealth | mobile health | Partners Health Care | SMS | text messaging | Text4Baby | Verizon Wireless |
By David Doherty, Business Development, 3G Doctor
Rob Havasy, a Business Analyst and mHealth Strategist at the Center for Connected Health, has posted a somewhat confusing article entitled “The Uncertain Price of mHealth.”
The basic premise is that the move from flat rate unlimited data to tiered data plans is something that “will surely impact smartphone use in mHealth.”
The article goes on to explain that data caps introduced by operators (who are rapidly losing interest in supporting Data Hogs who are eating up >2 GB per month) “throws uncertainty into the equation and will cause patients to reconsider embracing mHealth solutions and providers and payers to hesitate paying for them.”
As a basis for this argument Havasy explains that “until patients can be reassured that adopting an mHealth intervention will not incur additional, unexpected costs, they will be reluctant.” Doesn’t this fail to achieve a rather basic prerequisite of good business — that you offer services that customers can see value in and are prepared to pay for?
Havasy seems to be all at sea when it comes to appreciating the cost of data vs. SMS. Indeed mobile data services offer much better value than the “simple text messaging program” Havasy’s team recently offered to a population of young patients (of whom 20% refused to even consider due to the cost of SMS) eg. in comparison to mobile data plans of 2GB per month for $15, text messaging “penalties of only 25 cents per additional message” could be regarded as extortionate!
Havasy goes on to explain that after speaking “with colleagues and with other people in the mHealth field… we all agree on one thing: unless we can tell a patient that our program is absolutely free to them, adoption is an uphill battle.” Havasy then justifies this by suggesting that the underperforming Text4Baby program offers unequivocal proof for this.
“One of the central features of the program is that, in conjunction with the CTIA (the Wireless Industry Association) and the major American cellular carriers, messages are delivered free of charge to the user. This was considered a requirement for the program’s success – why should we think differently for other mHealth interventions?”
What’s convincing Rob and his colleagues at the Center for Connected Health that patients aren’t prepared to pay a single dime out of their own pocket for a service that makes their care experience better?
The final paragraph is a call on operators: “If the carriers are listening, please, give us fixed cost plans. Make it simpler – not harder – to figure costs and I’m sure you’ll be rewarded. The inevitable result of these pricing changes will be a shift away from the smartphone (and consumer data plans) as an mHealth platform and a shift towards more dedicated devices with embedded connectivity (think Amazon’s Kindle). Negotiated data rates and plans by device manufacturers can provide the cost certainty the market needs. Unfortunately, this will come at the cost of the rapid and innovative development made possible by smartphone platforms. The Center for Connected Health continues to investigate both dedicated and smartphone platforms for mHealth solutions, but the predictable costs associated with dedicated devices are very attractive for near-term deployments.”
Surely there’s a better answer to this than calling on operators to offer unlimited data plans? Which patients need to send 10GB of data a month anyway? Why isn’t Rob and the CFCH celebrating the opportunity that these more value conscious data plans offer?
Wouldn’t it actually be unfair if mobile operators retained their unlimited data plans so that patients (who wanted to use mobile data to improve their care experience) were faced with expensive data plans because they had to subsidise the mobile data usage of other more data intensive users?

Hippocratic Oath - mHealth; Time to DEFINE mHealth

mHealth threatens to evolve to a USD 19.5 Billion industry by 2015. But considering the fact that it is still in its infancy, there are confusions regarding clear definitions of mHealth. Currently, due to lack of a proper definition, anything from a health related service delivered on a device to a downloadable health app to a mobile device that can record or transmit patient data is treated as mHealth. It’s time that the regulatory bodies woke up to the looming evolution of mHealth and clearly define what constitutes mHealth and what doesn’t and also to put in place much needed regulations around technology’s newest billionaire (potential) infant. Read on…

It’s mHealth but will it be a Revolution?
Friday - June 25th, 2010 - 06:51pm EST by Brian Dolan
By Jon Linkous, CEO, American Telemedicine Association
The funny thing about “mHealth” is that it has taken on such a cult-like status among investors, industry and the media. Certainly the potential for the use of mHealth in the delivery of healthcare is huge and it may have an impact on other parts of healthcare such as chronic care management, emergency response services and the role and responsibilities of the consumer in their own health.
The market for mHealth is still in its infancy. There is still confusion about all that is encompassed in the term. It may include a mobile device or a service using mobile technology. The devices include an array of products and services that use mobile, wireless technology: cellular phones, wide-area, local-area and personal networks. These use different parts of the radio spectrum, different standards and protocols and different levels of signal strength or power. Generally the term mHealth does not include the use of satellite technology.
Some parts of mHealth are devices and services focused on direct consumer purchases and use. For example, the vast majority of the 6,000+ health-and-wellness smart phone applications are designed for use by consumers. However, when measured by dollar volume, these applications are probably smaller than other mobile devices and services aimed at the use in the traditional healthcare system.
The wide-spread media attraction in the mHealth market is because it’s new and it’s fun. It is still a bit of a Wild West atmosphere with new ideas and crazy applications coming up every day. Some include incredibly smart and exciting approaches to solving age old health care problems; others appear to be solutions in search of a problem. The investment money is flying out the door. Although there is a positive growth in sales, almost all of the mHealth companies or divisions have not yet made a profit. It reminds me a bit of the dot com (sometimes called the dot bomb) market of the 1990s. Certainly at this point mHealth is close to the top of the “hype cycle” (as described by Gartner, Inc). There are new associations and think tanks devoted to the subject, academic and commercial conferences galore. We are approaching the cycle’s “Peak of Expectations.”
For those on the sidelines it makes great fun. For developers and investors it is much more serious. It is a bit like a game of musical chairs. Most of the mHealth ventures are hoping to be bought up or merged into another, larger venture. At some point the music, or the outside funding, is going to stop (as we enter the Trough of Disillusionment) and those ventures not bought out or turning a profit will be in trouble.
But here is an important point – mHealth is not a stand-alone market. It is part of a mature, two trillion dollar healthcare business. To be successful, mHealth devices and services have to understand how the healthcare market operates; how it is funded and regulated; and, most important, how buying decisions are made. Developing a way to use a mobile device to measure blood glucose and send the data to another location may be interesting but is not nearly enough.
Further, relying on consumer expenditures for mHealth is probably not the answer for most such ventures. Out of pocket expenditures for healthcare in 2008 were a little below 12 percent, following a steady decline of over fifty years. This still represents a lot of money but it describes a public expectation that insurance, private or public, will pay for almost all of health care. Efforts to have consumers get more “skin in the game” will have only limited success when consumers are not even paying for their own drugs or eyeglasses anymore. Even the use of Flexible Spending Accounts will be restricted or eliminated as health reform is implemented.
Therefore, to recognize the benefits and opportunities offered by mHealth applications for healthcare delivery, they need to be incorporated into traditional healthcare financing and services. Surprisingly, despite the huge increase in health expenditures, the place where health dollars are spent has stayed relatively the same. Hospital care continues to be roughly one third of expenditures, physician services at about 20 percent and prescription drugs about 10 percent. Home health constitutes about 2 percent of national expenditures. What is changing is the source of these funds and who controls the spending. Accompanying the decline of direct consumer expenditures is the growth of public funding. On the horizon are more comprehensive regional healthcare networks with a broad authority to provide integrated, comprehensive care. This will dramatically accelerate with health reform.
The point of all of this is that the success of the mHealth revolution in the United States is directly linked with developments occurring in broader health reform and how mHealth applications may be an option for use in such developments as Accountable Care and Independence at Home initiatives. Such change is coming fast, really fast. In three to five years we may see an incredible change in the way various organizations are involved in health care delivery. It will be interesting to see how much mHealth is picked up and integrated into these changes.
Finally, assuming mHealth becomes recognized as an important component of mainstream health delivery, regulatory oversight is sure to increase. The Food and Drug Administration has played it light so far but the agency’s role in reviewing and approving mHealth devices may grow. Similarly the Federal Trade Commission, Federal Communications Commission and all of their counterparts in other countries will also soon take notice and start similar regulatory oversight activities.

Hippocratic Oath - mHealth; Mobile Marketing for Pharma Companies

I would say that this would be a skewed mindset to look at opportunities. Opportunities for mobile marketing for Pharma might actually start in the emerging markets a lot earlier than the emerged markets.


Text4Baby 50K; Microskia trial; Mobile pharma

Friday - July 2nd, 2010 - 12:01pm EST by Brian Dolan | cell phone microscope | e911 | HealthEd | Microskia | mobile health marketing | Pharma mobile health | SMS | telemedicine | Text4Baby | UCLA |

Mobile marketing for healthcare not a strong opportunity yet: Pixels & Pills has a short and sweet interview with Manhattan Research’s Monique Levy that is well worth a read: “The opportunity for healthcare marketers to leverage mobile marketing for patients in this time frame is comparatively less strong. As with PC-based access, patients predominantly use mobile devices to look for health information today; relatively few have or are interested in using tools or services to help them manage their care or benefits. What’s more, adoption and interest in health mobile activities skew towards younger age groups, which typically have a lower incidence of chronic conditions.”

Cell phone microscope trial nears: Microskia, a startup out of UCLA is set to begin trials in Africa later this year. Microskia created a $10 1.5 ounce microscope peripheral out of off-the-shelf components. The invention won numerous awards from foundations and the NSF, which have helped fund the forthcoming trial.

Telemedicine coupled with E911 saves lives: PDX pharmacy customers can now enable customers to manage prescriptions via their mobiles: PDX and mscripts announced a deal that will enabled PDX Pharmacy System users to communicate with their patients through their mobiles. PDX counts 10,000 retail pharmacies as customers in the US.

Pharma opportunities: The folks over at HealthEd have a comprehensive and well-written feature on early opportunities for pharmaceutical companies in mobile health.

Text4Baby cracks 50,000 users. (It actually said 50,000 women, but out of curiosity in January even I subscribed to the free service. I suspect I’m not alone.)

AND…

Interview with Manhattan Research’s Monique Levy
July 1st, 2010 •

As Senior Director of Research at Manhattan Research, Monique Levy focuses on consumer and physician eHealth trends and marketing strategy. Prior to joining Manhattan Research, Levy was Senior Analyst at JupiterResearch for six years, leading their health coverage. She also applied her health psychology expertise at eDiets.com, managing community and providing strategic and research support to the executive team. During this time, Levy produced an award-winning cognitive-behavioral learning and multimedia tool for weight management. She also worked on environmental issues at the World Bank and was a fellow at the Pan American Health Organization. Levy has been quoted in major media outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, NPR, and The Economist as well as other trade media including MedAdNews. Today, Pixels & Pills talks to Monique about current digital trends in the healthcare community.

By Kimberly Reyes (@CommDuCoeur)

What can healthcare marketers learn from recent trends in mobile usage, among both physicians and patients?
On the physician side the first thing for healthcare marketers to grasp is the extent of smart mobile device adoption. Our recent Taking the Pulse® v10.0 study shows that almost most three quarters of physicians own smartphones and many have a second smart portable device such as an iTouch or eReader. Another finding to which healthcare marketers should pay attention is that physicians are as likely to use browsers to find information on smartphones as they are to use apps – which means marketers have to look into mobile optimization of websites in addition to app development. Last, while physicians predominantly use smartphones to search for information and communicate today, strong growth in other activities such as patient monitoring, patient record keeping and learning are expected in the next 18 months.
The opportunity for healthcare marketers to leverage mobile marketing for patients in this time frame is comparatively less strong. As with PC-based access, patients predominantly use mobile devices to look for health information today; relatively few have or are interested in using tools or services to help them manage their care or benefits. What’s more, adoption and interest in health mobile activities skew towards younger age groups, which typically have a lower incidence of chronic conditions. Nevertheless, the personal, private and ‘always with you’ nature of smartphones, make them an ideal platform for condition and health management, so mobile health will likely grow in the midterm as mobile health products and mobile devices improve.

Can you briefly explain physician attitudes towards eHealth and ePatient communities?
Myths of physicians being intolerant of patients bringing in information from the Internet into consultations still persist even though we’ve found no evidence of this attitude in our research over the last few years. In fact, only about 1 in ten physicians say that patients referencing such information harm the relationship and the majority of physicians say patients are more informed after doing their online health research. At the same time, physicians are a bit wary of recommending websites and other online resources to patients, mostly because they can’t always vouch for them.

How is the healthcare community currently using social media, and what are some noticeable trends for 2010?
Physicians are very comfortable accessing content other healthcare professionals have created online for example on blogs, message boards, YouTube, and other websites. However, they have adopted closed professional communities or networks at a relatively slow pace mostly, according to the survey, because they haven’t had time to set up their profiles and become members of these services. The data suggests it’s much easier for physicians to stumble across professional user-generated content as they go about their regular online research than to go and log in to another dedicated resource. However, adoption of closed physician social networks may accelerate as these services evolve and provide exclusive content and other value-added services that make the extra step worthwhile.

Hippocratic Oath - mHealth

Disappointing news for someone who came in with a lot of promise. I can foresee kneejerk responses to this already. For starters the developed markets will look at regulating these devices in a more efficient manner than they are handled today (more so under healtheconomics and the FDAs). Secondly the bubble of mHealth will shrink in the minds of analysts. However, what is promising is that these regulations will move the drive for innovation out of the developed markets in the longer run leading to a lot of potential for innovation in emerging and less regulated markets.  

United Healthcare: CardioNet is “unproven”

Wednesday - July 7th, 2010

More bad news on the reimbursement front for CardioNet and other mobile cardiac outpatient telemetry service providers: United Healthcare told the company that it is maintaining its position that “outpatient cardiovascular telemetry is unproven for managing cardiac arrhythmias” and as a result it will not cover the service for its members. CardioNet, of course, disagrees and promised to continue to work with the payer to demonstrate the efficacy of its MCOT services.
The update from CardioNet about United Healthcare’s continued stance follows a similar move by the nters for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) that proposed last week that the technical component of mobile cardiovascular telemetry (CPT Code 93229) remains carrier-priced for calendar year 2011.
Highmark CMS originally paid $1,123.07 for MCOT services when the CPT code took effect in early 2009, however, by July Highmark CMS announced plans to reduce the reimbursement rate substantially. On September 1, 2009 a new rate of $754 per service, a 33 percent reduction from the original $1,123, took effect. CardioNet was disappointed: “This surprise decision by HMS on July 10, 2009 must be readdressed and not be allowed to put at risk either the investment in new technologies or the benefit to the patients we serve,” the company wrote in a statement.
Since then the company has had to tighten its belt and cut operations costs to adjust for the lower reimbursement rate. The news that United Healthcare, one of the largest payers in the US, maintains its policy on not reimbursing for CardioNet’s services certainly points to the climate of wireless health reimbursement today.

The Four Legged Inhabitant

Circa 3500 AD. 

Captain's Log: 

Day 365: Closing in on a yellow star. Looks like there are terrestrial bodies circulating this yellow star from our research on the star. 

Day 380: Went past an asteroid belt between giant planets. Minimum damage to the space shuttle. 

Day 384: Closing in on the 3rd rock from the yellow star. This is from where our scientists had deciphered a distress signal for help. Preparations to land on the alien terrain made for Day 385.

Day 385: Special day in the history of our species. Amazing discovery made. Proves that there was intelligent life on this planet that communicated with our scientists. Sadly, no evidence of any existing life forms. 

Report:

Air Samples: Contain high levels of sulphur-di-oxide, carbon monoxide and carbon-di-oxide.

Water Samples: Contaminated with different forms of chemicals, some unknown to us. 

Terrain: Only a small bit of landmass has survived. The rest is covered with contaminated water. Seems to be a result of huge nuclear activity coupled with seismic activity that destroyed the lifeforms on the planet. 

Day 386: 

Discovery: We have insights on what the life form that inhabited this planet looked like. They were small (2-3 feet in height and 3-5 feet long) four footed animals. From the evacuation site, we were able to get a pieces of artificially created, hard, grey colored slabs. Seems to be a ritual or sacred routine to set their feet in cast on these slabs. Going by the structure of the feet, it is amazing how these life forms could create something which could destroy the entire planet or for that matter something as simple as the slabs they left their footprints on. 

Day 387: 

More success. Discovered another slab colored in their star's color. Has a strange inscription that I have tried to recreate here - ಬೆಂಗಳೂರು 

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

Going by the number of cement pavements in Bangalore that have dog paw prints, this is what would happen if beings from other planet were to discover Bangalore after the earth is destroyed. ;)

The Jockeys of Jakarta

Ingenuity is something that is a feature of the emerging world. In my recent trip to Indonesia I noticed this phenomenon evolve a business model out of a regulation passed by the government.

Typical of cities bursting at their seams and with opportunities, Jakarta has a huge number of automotives that descend on the streets cometh the rush hour. To reduce the traffic burden in the core business district (CBD), the Jakarta Traffic Police have come up with a regulation. The regulation states that when a private car enters the CBD, there have to be a minimum of 3 people in the car. This was a move to encourage car pooling. The fines that one has to pay if the regulation is violated are steep. However, I didn't meet a single local who knew what the fine was. Everyone manages to get away with IDR 50,000 as coffee money to the cops. Don't be scared by the numbers, the conversion rate for IDR to INR is 200 and to USD is roughly 10,000.

Cut to the streets of Jakarta. Just before you venture into the CBD, you see people standing on the footpaths with their hands outstretched and pointing their finger(s) at the sky. This number of fingers pointing indicates the number of people willing to be temporarily employed as "Jockeys". So this is how it works, you are one person short of three, you pick one Jockey from the street. They accompany you to your officeand there you drop them off paying them IDR 10 to 15,000. If you are alone, no need to be concerned about picking up 2 adults; there are plenty of women jockeys with their infants in tow. The mother and child count as 2.

"Necessity is the mother of invention", so very true. Though I was shocked at the thought of picking a total stranger to accompany you in your car, there are some locals who have the comfort of "regular" jockeys as well. Ingenuity Indeed!!! 

Cleanliness is next to Godliness

Roadside pay and use toilets in Jakarta.

"Giant" Wheel

:) ;) :P

Fortunately this is not a transliterated Hindi sign board. Shot at the Jakarta Fair in Jakarta marking the anniversary of Jakarta's formation.

Enthralling Encounters!!!

Tense scenes at the Kingfisher Sports Lounge @ the Bangalore International Airport. People wouldn't budge until Bhajji slammed a six off the penultimate ball against Pakistan to bring home the victory. This is what a India - Pak match does even to the most stiff upper lips!!! 

Currency Matters

The language of currency is strange. This is what happens when you are hopping across different countries on the same trip. Different allowances for different countries and when the ForEx envelop arrives, it looks like this. :)

IT Returns Filing...

Not sure what makes me feel that I will not use this CA or group to file IT returns. Look and read closely and you will understand why.

1. Spelling mistakes,
2. Stapling the paper on a tree which I believe is a punishable act of crime, and 
3. Now for the hilarious bit. Some enterprising resource in the company appears to have searched for benefits of IT Returns filing and found all those beautifully spaced bullets which are actually specific to the US and not to India. 

Left me wondering as to how many credit points I have won having filed returns for ages.

Well such things do happen closer to IT filing deadlines and the crowd mentality that laps up anything.

Brrr....

Pigeons on the 85th floor of the Empire State in the Big Apple

Right of Way

Difficult to determine the right of way in the Western Ghats on a track that leads to Kodachadri. The 6 km odd route takes an hours to traverse and one comes across such scenes frequently.

Street Food

Typical of Asian Cuisine, what you see is invariably what you eat and are seldom left wondering what's getting into your mouth. Food on a stick on a street in Bangkok.

Evolution of mythology as it traverses the seas

Had never seen heard of a grown up Krishna combating Kalinga until I visited the island of Bali

Thank you KPTCL

KPTCL is the Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation who ensures that our houses have electricity!!!

Naming Convention

Seeking Directions???

Not sure how this serves as a Guide Map as it claims to be. The only guidance provided is the arrow pointing North. There are absolutely no names for the buildings or structures within the fort and you are forced to take a Human Guide along who invariably knows less than you would.

Transparency in the Workspace ;-)

Birthplace of Modern Civilization!!!

Typical London atmosphere!!! The "Eye" in the backdrop a symbol of modernization, the Big Ben chiming away since ages and announcing the changes in the times and the omnipresent shutter happy tourists in the foreground happily clicking away to capture the moment for posterity. And yes, not to forget the drizzle. ;)

Blue!!!

Churchill Island some distance off Melbourne. In a farm on the island, the pool of water for the farm animals lies within sight of the blue ocean beyond. The sight is absolutely amazing and brings peace to the soul.

Golden Sunset

Well, Nature has its way of playing with colors. This pic was taken when we were on the ferry near Honnemarudu in Shimoga district.

Innovation

Looks like a coconut broken in half doesn't it? Actually these are Indian sweets. :) The vendor applies his ingenious thinking to convert a doodh peda (sweets made of milk) lacing it with chocolate powder and make it appear like a coconut. Innovation indeed!!!

Royalty

This was supposedly where the women who were shortlisted to breastfeed the Chinese emperor had their breasts examined by the royal doctors. Notice the liberal use of the symbols of power - the dragons on the arm rest, the dragons on the stone structure, the red color behind the platform; all symbol of POWER in China.

It's all about Presentation!!!

On a business visit to China we went to this place called "Pure Lotus". The food was pure-vegetarian and the drink non-alcoholic. But one can actually never make out the difference. More than anything else, it was the presentation that gave way to the WOWS. This shell is actually what you eat out of!!!

Speed!!!

World's First and Best Superhero!!!

Family Dinner ...

Team Work!!!

Luxury!!!

A Humbling Experience!!!

Most of us dream of getting jobs in companies that are brands by themselves. A company so popular that once you tell people you work for them, they ask "What are you doing there?" instead of "What does your company do"? I moved into one such brand recently and I should be honest to accept the fact that my lifestyle improved ever so noticeably. New car, branded accessories, fine dining, high flying, etc., etc,.

However, the beauty of working with a brand company is that you relate to the things you do more than a service provider. You fall in love with the idea that your product is and your product starts featuring in your dreams as well. You invariably, live, walk, talk, eat, sleep the product you manage.

All that apart, there was a humbling experience on one of the field trips. We went to a farmer's vineyard to understand them better and their needs. Not that I wasn't aware of the problems faced by farmers at all, but the warmth and love these people showed to absolute strangers was very touching. I then suddenly realized that these are the very people who are paying for my car's EMI, my monthly apartment EMI, my son's schooling, my daily food, my parent's medicines...

I stood there indebted to the people who earn less than $5 a day but end up supporting a complex ecosystem. I came back promising myself that I will work more diligently, have nightmares if the product is not on par, ensure that what we offer indeed becomes a vector to the people using it to succeed in their lives. For, their success is actually what defines my life!!!