Best Movies of this year - 2009

This year had some good movies, some not that great.. So here is my list (one's that I have seen)
1. 3 Idiots - Amazing Aamir, impressive performances by a great star cast, funny one liners, great music - this is the best of the lot
2. Paa - Did anyone say that Amitabh is the best?
3. Dev D -  I became a fan of Anurag after this modern take on Devdas. Amit trivedi's music & great lyrics makes this movie a classic. I am thinking that Dev D should be up the list, but seem to think that Amitabh's performance & an off beat storyline carries Paa to second spot
4. Gulaal - Amazing music, Kay Kay at his best, strong performance by Mahie Gill.
5. Hangover - Great comedy with a great storyline

I need to watch Kaminey on DVD, so thats one bad miss from my side for this year.

Have we lost the GKVK?

The High Court has almost said YES by lifting the stay on an earlier order permitting the GKVK Link road (which will connect Bellary Road to Yeshwantpur-Yelehanka Road) work to continue (while not passing any final order) but also saying that a committee will be formed "to suggest ways for going head with the project in the interest of general public and also to review its bio-diversity aspects"
So my earlier post where I was saying that the GKVK will be saved - is no longer true..
You can see the sheer audacity of BBMP when their counsel says that "The BBMP had spent Rs100 crore for the project. Only the asphalting work was pending, The formation of the road will benefit general public"
Did the BBMP consult anyone before starting this work?
What does he mean when says that only asphalting is pending - does he even talk of who gave him the authority to cut the tree & what about the massive loss caused by cutting those 3000 trees?
When the whole world is talking of climate change & crying hoarse over the rising mercury, all BBMP can come up with is cutting trees & not having any idea what environmental damage they are creating.
The big surprise was the usually watchful forest department washed its hands by saying that "the campus is not fully under its jurisdiction"
The early morning walks in GKVK will be a thing of the past for all of us who stay nearby..
Bye Bye GKVK

End of on Premise is near

Vinnie in his trademark style says that -- "If you add up all the systems integration, hosting, upgrade and application/basis management costs around SAP in the last 25 years – that done by its partners or its customer staff, I estimate it has been over $ 2 trillion in costs"

Wow.. that's a huge dollar number..

I have always maintained that on premise is getting challenged severly with customers demanding quicker upgrades & implementations, lower maintenance of hardware & software - leading to lower TCO's. SaaS based ERP promises all this.. there is a definite shift towards these models as customers ask & evaluate these vis-a-vis traditional ERP.

Interesting times ahead.

Bravo Vinnie

Vinnie Mirchandani on deal architect blows away the rather irritating debate on cloud computing going on in Economist, by his excellent take on how the on-premise vendors have overpriced, over sold & under delivered their wares.

Decreasing personal interaction

It could be sheer co-incidence that in the morning I was listening to an interesting (rare) discussion on FM Radio about how technology has removed the personal touch between people & we dont really have time to interact personally with friends, neighbours etc & reading Phil in his today's blog post about exactly the same thing.

In an earlier post I had written about how I am not a great fan of the social networking sites like twitter etc & how modern technology though unavoidable, has definitely contributed to the decline of the personal touch. Dont get me wrong I am all for social networking esp when we need to keep in touch with friends who are far away from us, but typing every now & then into facebook, twitter isnt my cup of tea..!... & true collaboration doesnt happen on 140 characters..!...

Helming India's entry to Oscar, 2010

Read an interview of Paresh Mokashi who is the director of India's Oscar Entry this year - Harishchandrachi Factory. Read the Interview here - Helming India's entry to Oscar, 2010: Rediff.com movies

I particularly like the inspiring comment he makes on the question of regional directors not getting that kind of recognition or financial help. Here's what he says "If I go to a producer with big names like the Khans or Roshans, I will get the money fairly easily. But if you knock at their door with a different kind of a story, they won't entertain you.
I'm all right with that attitude because it really tests my passion. It makes me question myself, "To what extent will I go to make this film?" So why not face these obstacles?
It's essential to struggle on your own for a while and prove to the world that you have the brains and brawn. Support will then automatically come your way."

Of course he is talking more from an entreprenurial perspective, but I feel that things we undertake in our daily lives as well can also draw from his quote. Maybe in my life it could apply to daily exercise, studying for that certification exam.
At times we start to undertake a few activities only to find that we have run out of steam & have excuses dime a dozen for the same. But the obstacles really help strengthen the conviction & resolve to go that one step further to achieve our goals..

Rio to host 2016 Olympics

IOC announced that Brazil's city Rio de Janerio will host the 2016 Olmpics Games, ahead of even Chicago which was strongly backed by Barack Obama. IBN reports that economic muscle of Brazil was one of the main reasons that IOC awarded the Olympics to Rio. Brazil's economic muscle, Lula behind Rio's win

Was wondering that amongst the BRIC countries except India all the other countries have hosted or will host the Olympics.
When will India get a chance to show its might & have the authority to host a Olympic Games.. or is that just a pipe dream. I am optimistic & maybe in our lifetime we will have the Olympics in our country.

Social Networking Shy

I am a big fan of internet & its power, but I was never enamoured with the so called "Social Networking" sites & frankly there are too many of them now. Orkut was the front runner, then we had the facebook, linked in, twitter etc etc.
But this time i really found the power of social networking when i was able to connect with most of my US friends through these sites, esp Orkut & LinkedIn.
Well, maybe I will get converted to using these more often..Having said that I am still not comfortable with opening a account with Twitter..!.. or maybe i will find a reason to get converted.

MSS Implementation - Why should I?

I had a rather interesting question posed to me by one of the HR Business Managers in the context of implementing a Manager Self Service, they currently do not have one & managers have the HR Admins or Deptt Admins doing all the transactions on their behalf.

Question was: Why should I implement a Manager Self Service module, what is it going to do for my managers? Is HR trying to push its dirty work back to the Manager? What are the benefits of having a MSS solution. This set me thinking real hard on the actual merits of a MSS.

A line manager is an extension of a HR function & is supposed to execute the policies, processes that the HR function implements. Manager by virtue of his name, is the closest to the employee & understands the employee the best. Also all job descriptions of a manager would include tasks like managing the workforce productivity, manage turnover, quality, training etc., so in essence a line manager is a "mini HR Manager" & hence having a MSS makes lot of sense for him/her to accomplish the HR tasks.

There are numerous advantages of having a MSS
1. Manager's now have access to all of their direct reports data in one single place, which means that they don't have to go back & forth to HR for this information
2. It definitely decreases the time taken for routine transactions like approvals for say absence or timesheets
3. With areas like compensation planning, MSS would have provide managers with their budgets & they could plan & recommend salary increases for their direct reports
4. In areas like performance reviews, competency management, skill development managers have the information required on their desktops to carry out these critical tasks.
5. It will help decrease the paper trails, improve control of information, improve data integrity - all essential requirements from a SOX compliance angle as well

What this is doing is really freeing up the time HR would spend on routine tasks & enable them to focus on what is really strategic for the organization - like Talent Management for e.g.

Hiring is On.. But be careful

A recent report in Rediff indicates that hiring trend has gone northwards. The same report also indicates optimism -- "as much as 25 per cent of the employers showing an intention to recruit people in the next three months of this year"


While this is good news, there is something that recruiters need to be careful of. This report in workforce.com indicates the discrimination claims that employers can expect if they recruit from social networking sites like Twitter or Linkedin.

Hmm.. while this report is US specific, it gives a good insight into what might constitute a discriminatory hiring practice, something global recuiters will need to be aware of.

GKVK Saved

So.. All's well that End's Well..
Finally the Courts had to intervene.. In what I would like to call a Landmark judgement from the High Court, the trees of GKVK will not be cut & hence the link road through GKVK linking Yeshwantpur-Yelahanka road with Bellary Road will not be taken up further.
Link to High Court Verdict in Times of India.
For this verdict special thanks to all the Vice chancellors of GKVK who filed the PIL in high court. Hasiru Usiru for their sustained campaign & who organized a Green March at MG Road to highlight the issues if such a road were to come up.Rotary Club of Yelahanka which organized candle light vigils at GKVK.
Special thanks to indian Express, Hindu for exposing the former commissioner of BBMP Subramanya's undue involvement in the road project.

Some questions which readily come to one's mind
1. Why should the court's be always involved in these kind of environmental issues, doesnt the exectutive understand these issues?
2. Why is the BBMP getting involved in a road project which nobody wants? A road already exists which connects bellary road, this road is the Sandeep Unnikrishnan road & has considerably reduced the travel time to the airport in the north bangalore area.
3. The whole of Bangalore is crying for attention to the existing infrastructure which is woefully short for the current population, what are the BBMP's plans to expedite this?
The KR Puram ring road junction is an excellent example of what is lacking in Bangalore's infrastructure. As a daily user of this route for many years, I shudder to see fear on old citizens faces when trying to cross the road, the daily traffic jams on both sides of the road have been a regular feature since the sky bridge has come up. What has BBMP done to address this single piece of infrastructure. Maybe a PIL to the High Court will help?
On a funny note here is Mr Subramanya's singular piece of contribution to Bangalore's infrastructure..!..