My first reaction to the book - Connected : The surprising power of socal networks

Last week, I got a surprise pack from my friends over at Accel (a venture capital company). In the package was the book by Christakis & Fowler which as a best seller for 2009.

The book is titled Connected : The surprising power of our social networks and how they shape our lives. A long title, but, will probably be referred to as they do in their website connectedthebook.com

I think this is an extremely well researched book in the sense that there has been an attempt to cover linkages / social networks from both a behavioral aspect and a media / tool aspect. While some of the analysis result seems to be quite obvious (maybe my Asian - relationship oriented thought bias is showing), some are quite revealing.

There were 2 major "current news" items that kept flashing in my mind while reading the set. The first being the H1N1 scare that most of India saw a few months ago with the media feeding in a frenzy for the first few days. I guess saner minds prevailed over the news channels from day 3 of transmission.

The second news item was much more recent and "topical" - this was the scare in a textile unit where people were driven off to the hospital complaining of dysentery and stomach ailment.

Apparently, there was no problem with the water (infact, most people I know tend to carry water today), there was no food distributed and the air was "normal" ?. We are not talking about a couple of people here - the total was closer to about 70 individuals with only one being retained in the hospital for a "real" cause ?

Seemed like a touch a "socially" stimulated disease ?

Catching up in 2010 : More frequent posts ?

Last week was filled with some news that means I need to catch up with a single post with 3 sections.....
The first news-item that I wanted to comment and blog on was related to Justice Santhosh Hegde winning the Times, man of year for Bangalore. Well deserved indeed.

I think that the public is tiring of the political and other value loss and is looking for "role models". Justice Santosh Hegde aptly fills this void. While I'm sure there are a lot of people around who'd like to emulate him but will come up with tons of excuses as to why they cannot do so / or why their line of work will not allow them to do so, he'll continue to be an example of the axiom "Walk your talk". Kudos to him for highlighting what is possible and more strength to his cause.
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The next 2 posts are related by death :-( ie of Dr. Vishnuvardhan and C Ashwath.

IMHO, Ashwath's death was overshadowed by the the "noise" around the demise of Kannada theatre's "Sahasa Simha". I've been a fan of both, but, was hurt with the repeat madness that the cities showed. Am convinced that this is not a "fan" or "following" issue, but, larger motivation as a mechanism to hoodlum-hood.

It is aptly evident from the fact that most of these are an urban phenomenon. None of the millions of fans in the rural belt have gone out and created trouble. They've chosen to pay homage in a personal manner and have behaved in a much more dignified manner. I'd like to think that their silent tribute is more meaningful ?

RIP gentlemen : You can rest in peace with the knowledge that your volume or work will remain as a testimony to your talents. You've certainly left deep footprints in the sands of Kannada's time

End of an Indian Scooter Era : Bajaj not to make scooters

One of the middle-class status symbols of India circa the 80s' is gone !.

I read the article that Bajaj is going to stop it's scooter production in favour of motorcycles with some bit of nostalgia and a lot of "OMG - I'm of a different generation" thoughts...

In the late 70's and the early 80's, the scooter was actually the middle class dream vehicle for the new family. In some ways, it was the urban "made it" symbol !

While I used to favour the "Lambretta" as it had a centered engine, as against the "Vespa" style of engine on the right. These used to be cult vehicles in college. Next, came the Vijay's and the like. However, my guess is that the Bajaj (esp the Chetak) was the mainstay in lots of families.

These were so sought after that you could easily make a killing in the allotment and transfer game. If I remember right, there used to be a USD only booking option also with some hugh sum that had to be paid as advance (does 10,000 sound right ?).

Truly an end of the era event.

Today, looking back, I'd love to buy off a "Lambretta" from the open market if someone has one for sale ?

Supreme Court asks of MontBlanc's Gandhiji Pen : Is it mightier ?

Read with glee the questioning by the chief justice and the other justices of MontBlanc's "Mahatma Gandhi" special pen today.

Quote from ET "Can Mahatma Gandhi be the poster boy for driving home the message that a super-expensive Mont Blanc “pen is mightier than the sword?” To this question of a PIL petitioner, the Supreme Court on Monday sought responses of the Centre and the retail outlet of the pen-maker in Delhi"


Way back in Oct (just past the Jayanti), I had made the following post

http://inatech.blogspot.com/2009/10/time-off-on-gandhi-jayanthi-is-it-right.html

and my anguish came from the fact that the company was peddling a USD 25000 pen in the name of the person who shunned ostentatious spend all his adult life !

Would love to hear what the response is ? How will they justify this ?

Bangalore's Street Art : New Impetus

Treading on the same path as my previous post - there is another welcome change in the street art scene in Bangalore. Karnataka Chitrakala Parishat (CKP as it is popularly known as) is now putting some art pieces ie. Metal murals etc on it's fence.

The art school used to be a great "poster" for the movie ads and now will show some real art.

Other than some street art in front of the ING building on Bangalore's MG road - there has been little movement on this front and CKP's new initiative is a welcome change.......

Let us hope that others take this up as a clarion call and get to more street art. This, IMHO, will help build Bangalore's character

The new street art in Bangalore : BBMP sponsored paintings on the roadside

There has been hectic activity by BBMP over the last month where there have been teams "painting" the walls across the city.

In a welcome move, BBMP seems to have sponsored a new form of street art that is a BIG welcome difference to the various "movie" posters that used to adorn these roadside wall-space.

The motif seems to be from a wide range of topics - eg. Animals (Elephants etc) in the region to the cultural / heritage sites (Halebid, Gol Gumbaz etc) and natural scenic sights (eg. Jog falls).

What I really liked with this is that for a lot of people (esp. Children) is that this provides a welcome diversion during the infamous traffic jams.

Maybe it is an intentional distraction ?

Catamaran : Not another Hotmail style rush ?

I read bemusedly this morning's news "flash" on Mrs. Sudha Murthy's Infy stock sale and announcement on it's intended deployment into Catamaran ventures.

I just hope that all the aspiring entrepreneurs (esp. in Bangalore / KA) etc do not think that these amounts of money is available for the "taking" ?

While I do know that there is a huge gap in the valuation expectation and actual reality when it comes to startup, am reminded of the time when Sabeer Bhatia made the millions on Hotmail. Almost overnight, I saw every Mani, Swamy and Shah walk around with a harebrained dot.com idea on their lips. Everyone seemed convinced that their idea was worth a few million at the very least........

I agree with the vast majority that in India, real "angel" and "seed" funding has been sparse, but, what it has also done is enhanced our ability to leverage "Jugaad".

People need to remember that a very small bank balance is a very high leverage on sales effort :-)