The Crab Mentality

What is Crab Mentality???? Suppose a large number of crabs are put in a bucket. If one of the crabs tries to crawl out of the bucket, the other crabs would pull it back into the bucket. All they care is that none of the them succeeds. I find the same mentality among humans... At least many of the people around me.... Why is that??? Do people really believe that the world around them is the only world that exists???? Do they really think that the success of one person defines their own failure?????
I found it very weird that the people here around me(as I can vouch only for them) are so insecure that they cannot bear to see others try to succeed in any activity. Is life a race among each other??? Who are we competing with????? And why do we have the mentality of trying to pull down the people we actually in contact with????
The culture in Silicon Valley, or even in universities like Harvard and Stanford is of supporting any development of its people....The success of companies right from HP to Google to Facebook can be attributed to this. The success of these companies is not only their product and management(though they being equally important) but also the supportive culture around them... And it can be seen how much difference it makes in the world... When the people around you don't support you then how can one expect others in the world to????
Why is that we as Indians have a nature of suspecting and not supporting any product developed ingeniously???? I believe that we are taught to compete with each other right from childhood that we forget to realize that the world is a much bigger place... We end up being like a fish in a pond... not realizing that it would be easier and more advantageous to support locally developed skills than to be in awe of the developed world...
All I can hope is that one day we realize that we can succeed with others success too... This would help us walk on the right path of supporting each other rather than trying to prevent others success.....

Think out of the box

I am posting after a long hiatus... Was busy with my MBA preparation and interviews... Now back to being free and bored...... So nwz was watching the documentary "Pirates of the Silicon Valley".. For the non geeks this is a movie based on Steve Jobs and Bill Gates... their journey...... Anyhow this movie got me thinking..... What do you think is the reason for their success??? I know they were at the right place at the right time... But so were many else.... what differentiated them???

I believe they were successful because they had the guts to be different.... Bill Gates created a whole new industry based on software... Steve Jobs brought the whole new idea of a home computer... IBM and HP had a chance but did not use them.... They took big chances... They might have failed... But they would have at least the satisfaction of saying they took the best shot they had.... 

The Internet boom has made information access so easy.... So one can create applications to solve any problem and get the publicity comparatively easily online....But I guess all the applications being developed are to solve one problem at a time... The whole attitude being "Solve one problem a bit better than your competitor".... I don't think this is right...... This is a small way of moving forward..... I agree this is a way to proceed but is evolution really better then revolution???? What do you think???? What I believe will happen(and I am sure it will) is a major revolutionary jump in the concept of dealing with hardware and software..... The way the data is handled.. the way u communicate with it.. Any of this...Whoever starts that hits the jackpot.... Will you be it???? ( If you feel the answer is yes and you do have an idea and need any partners , plz do contact me!!!)

The Wall Street Bailout...Does Hard Work Pay???

Well I seem to have got a grip on how to blog.... So decided to blog on various topics now... So lets talk about the Wall Street bailout....
I am sure everybody must be aware of the sub prime crisis by now...... The effects of that ripple creating havoc in the whole world wide market..... Anyways I don't plan to discuss that here... What I wanted to talk about is the bail out... 700 billion $ bailout plan was made... I am not sure exactly how much money was given to the Wall Street companies but must be a major chunk... And I hear all the executives of the companies have received bonuses worth 20 billion $!!!!
While I was a kid, I had heard(and probably read) about the story of "The Ant and The Grasshopper"... The ant slogs all summer to save food for winter while the grasshopper plays about the whole summer.. When winter arrives, the grasshopper has no place to go, no food to eat... Basically, the moral of the story was that Hard Work Pays and that it is Good to save for a rainy day..... But are these really true???
Bernie Madoff scammed the Wall Street off 50 billion $.... You could say he worked hard for this scam!!!(I wouldnt but it could be true).... The point is people lost their hard earned money.... So there goes one moral....Then lets see the other Wall Street companies.... They needed money to be bailed out.... So they must have made some bad decisions.... surely.... So do they deserve the hikes they are receiving??? At the end the money lost by these companies came from banks which were savings of many people....
So do the so called morals and "correct" way of living really matter??? The rich and comfortable remain so and get paid bonuses too.... The average guy who lived his life "correctly" loses his job because of decisions taken by others....Everyday I hear people getting fired in the IT industry(because I am a part of it) Is this fair???? So whats the solution u ask???
Since the management level of a company is paid more because their work is supposedly tougher.... I think in situations like these they should be held accountable.....But how??? That is where the actual problem arises?? The wrong decisions have been made... So how can action be taken such that they are the only ones affected??? I think this needs a whole larger pool of ideas... If you do read this please do comment on how can this be done...
The point is not how can the present economic crisis be solved... The point is how can it be avoided in the future....And so that it can be said "Hard Work Actually Pays"......

Jaago Re...

Yesterday, the Jaago re team had come over to my office to encourage us to get registered...

Great initiative.... I really felt the guy(Naveen) who had come to give the presentation had the passion to do this.... He really put his heart out trying to convince us to register ourselves to vote....

On behalf of the Jaago Re team I too ask any readers to register themselves in the voters list... Its really been made simple... Just check out http://www.jaagore.com/..... 

During the discussion, somebody raised a point about the politicians standing for election.... The point was that the choice among the politicians is so bad that it makes no difference whether we vote for any of them.... Naveen then asked us as to why dont we stand for elections... We might give many reasons but the truth is that we are sure we will lose... And why is that??? Because we are sure none of the people who actually are interested in India's growth would vote... Not to us nor to anybody.... 

So what drive would any good person have to stand for elections until he feels that people who are as concerned about India as him would support him.... Its like a vicious circle... Honest people dont vote... so honest politcians arent interested to stand for elections...... This has to break somewhere.... Lets try it from our side once... Lets all vote once... Maybe this would encourage some good politician to come out and stand for elections the next time...

We have been burnt many times....... Lets take one more chance.......Please vote this year..

Mangalore attakcs...

I am sure everybody must have come to know about the attack in mangalore on women at a pub...I dont seem to understand as to what the attackers were targeting?? Were they attacking the fact that women were drinking there??? Or that the drinking is a bad precedent???? 

I think the whole media seems to be focussed on the fact that women were attacked in the pub.. so it decides to make an issue on this... I agree that women are soft targets and are always made scapegoats in any cultural changes taking place... But this incident needs to be seen on a larger scale... The society is getting polarised at a very fast rate due to incidents like these...  The point is that tolerance of anything that one doesnt like is getting reduced to such a level that violence is getting accepted as a means to solve it... We are ready to condemn the attack on women but begin discussing the fact whether the "pub culture" is good or bad"...

I think the discussion makes no sense... Because as pubs are not illegal it makes no point debating whether it is good or bad... If the government feels this thing is wrong let them make it illegal.... But this attack does bring out one thing.... Our country is getting polarised on many angles.... This attack is not about indian culture... Its about finding things to split people into groups so as to pitch them against one other... This was the same tactic used by Hitler.... He created fear among the non jews against speaking up and eliminated jews... If he had been allowed to continue he would have found some other group to target.... At the end it is not about beliefs but about domination.... Now its upto us to decide what we do about this... Bt we are so involved in our own lives thinking that we are not affected by this... Not today sure... But who is gonna support you when you are stuck in some situation like this????   

My experience with the cops....

I have never blogged before. Had been planning it for a long time but have been too lazy for it. I had been planning to begin blogging on something general. 

Let me get some reference to what I plan to write. My bike was stolen about 3 months back( Oct 13 actually). To file a FIR I had to run around the police for 3 days. Had to bribe the officials to write down the FIR after 3 days.... I know what I did was wrong but I told myself this is how the world works..... Saying this I put my mind to rest.. But this remained lingering in my thoughts..

Anyways, the police found my bike!!! Yesterday actually..I get a call from the police saying they have found my bike,and I need to collect it. I go to the Mico Layout police station(where I had file my FIR). The cop there tells me that I need give some "Khushi" to get my bike. I go home, get 2000 bucks...Pay him 500.. He tells me that the bike is at Kormangala branch!! So I go there.. The cop sitting there tells me to pay him 2500 bucks to get the work done. I dont do that... I tell him I'l get the money tomorrow...He tells me get the money only then will he begin the procedure.. He takes me to the bike and tells me a story that they caught the thief riding the bike by hitting him with a stick.. I doubt the story...

When i check the bike I find the battery missing, the screws from the tank cap missing... Literally anything sellable missing... I am quite sure its the cops who have sold the parts.... 

Next day, I go back... He makes me wait 4 hours.. Then he tells me to collect a 100rs stamp paper form the bank... When at last I do all this he decides to abuse me and tells me that I have been bugging him too much and that the favour he was doing towards me turns to be more painful... So he doesnt give me the bike till 7 pm and by then all service centres are closed so I have to drag my bike for about 5 km....At the end I pay him 2500 bucks... take abuse from him...and go home exhausted....

Before leaving the police station, I meet a girl whose cell phone and ear ring was stolen right on the road.. She was sure she wouldnt find it but came to report it none the less so that maybe someone else could be safer..

This experience got me thinking.... I have the money to pay them... I have the guts to fight them( I did when he abused me).. But most people dont.. How do they get things done? If they cant what use is the law and order department? Is the process so openly corrupted that there is no way to improve this?? I am not talking about changing the whole system.. Maybe that needs to be done too... But I cant... If I do find someone who can I will help them any way I can...

My question is Have we become so immune to all this(in my case corruption) that we dont feel the guilt of doing the wrong thing???? Are there any steps that we could take to help someone in need?? Have we helped anybody just for the fact that the person needs help???

Lets take the police as an example. Can anybody give ideas as to how could we make things easier so that atleast the simple things which need police involvement get simpler???