We are celebrating eco week at work the coming week, as a part of this activity on every day of the work week we launch an initiative that minimizes carbon emissions. Transports of all forms nearly are the usual culprits, and in Bangalore they contribute to 94% of the carbon emissions. So we start eco week with a No fuel day initiative. As a part of the No fuel initiative we would abstain from any mean of transport that involves carbon emissions. So the alternatives are either you walk to and from work or cycle to work. This is purely voluntary. I use my 2 wheeler to commute to work which is 38 km to and fro, which means on any given day I pollute my city with 1.7 Kg of carbon, given that data I volunteered to cycle to work.
No Fuel day is scheduled 18th Aug 2009, but I needed a cycle. Bala is a colleague of mine and he cycles to work every day for nearly the past year now, he was ready to lend his cycle as he had opted to walk to office as his place is quite close by. I had to borrow the cycle on Friday so that I could cycle to work on Monday.
As decided I turned up at Bala’s place on Friday evening, after some time with his family, I pushed the cycle from his place a bit nervous. I told Bala and his family not to laugh if I fell from the cycle. They took me real seriously, now it was sinking in I had to cycle after 14 years and it’s going to the maximum km that I have every cycled.
In school in 1995, I used to cycle to and from my home in Domblur, to my school in Frazer town which should be approximately 9 km.
Now the times are different I weigh 3 times as much, and in a city where I have never seen school kids on a cycle. The only guys who cycle is the guy who cannot afford public transport then there is the IT guy on his Firefox and the 1 lakh bicycle definitely not the nano of the bicycle world. I am going to juxtapose cycling in 95 and 09 as I felt the changes in the city only during this ride, the infra, malls, traffic all said and done there are some elemental things that are much closer to me that I would love to share.
Ok with Bala and his family with the worried look watched me mount the cycle, with two quick movements I had started my journey, I could hear a cheer from behind from Bala & his family, I wanted to turn and wave back, but I wasn’t confident yet, so I just waved looking straight ahead. Bala is 6ft odd and I am 5 feet 6 inc, I looked like a guy in the circus riding this huge bicycle, so my first pit stop was the cycle mechanic. Before that I had to make my first turn onto the main road, this is when I really missed the indicator, somehow I made it I didn’t heed to any of the abuses being hurled at me by fellow commuters.
In 1995 I had a school bag on my shoulder, which was a Bata bag, filled with text books and note books. In 2009 the times are no different I have a wild craft bag meant to be a bag pack for adventurers but now a stylish lap top bag for my daily adventure through Bangalore traffic. In my laptop I had more data than all my schoolmates put together from class 1 to 10. Talk about changes by leaps and bounds.
I stopped at a cycle shop or should I say a bike mechanic but I don’t mind the odd cycle guy types, I just had to reduce the height of the seat. In 1995 I knew the cycle shops to and from school like Google maps in my head. In 2009 I hardly remember seeing one. For fixing the seat height the usual transaction is “We will cover it next time” or a rupee max, now its 5 rupees. After 14 years I stood on a pavement and watched the world around me. In 95 my panoramic view on the same spot which I am familiar with would have been LIC row houses, and at the end of the road a departmental store, today it was neon lights and I just couldn’t see past them.
The seating was perfect; I needed some music to keep my ears immune to the orchestra of Bangalore traffic. So I put on the iPod and started. I agree by saying in 95 I sound like an army guy discussing spoils of the two wars that he was a part off, but I am still going to do it. In 95 music on the move for me meant one of the few BTS (Now BMTC) with a speaker system, the only time we would hear the music is when he slowed down at a bus stop.
In 95 when I cycled to school, it was few great pals, Sudhir, Harish & Shyam Krishna, sharing jokes communicating to each other effortlessly. Today I was alone, but thinking about those days when we rode through the MEG campus telling the guards we are going to meet my uncle Major …. made me laugh. I passed through MG road, lots of first time thoughts here, my first movie Herbie goes to Monte Carlo, Mecana’s Gold in Symphony.
I still had 18 Km to go, but enough thoughts from 95 to fuel my journey. I don’t know if it is being a kid that I am happy about in 95, or how Bangalore was in 95, guess it’s being a kid.
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Friday, August 14, 2009
Be the problem Creator – Happy Independence Day.
My work profile demands that I closely work with the software product ecosystem in India. As a part of this profile, I get to speak to CXOs of product companies of various sizes, and of various software segments from the ERP to the iphone application.
Somehow every time I came across a product it is usually solving a larger problem created by a larger product company in most cases from markets abroad. This is not a dampener when you realize the market share and the kind of revenues that the companies make. But the concern is that we are missing out on the bigger piece of action.
When you are a company of a size of a SAP, Oracle, Microsoft, IBM they have so many Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) that develop software around their platforms that they need to run a partner program to coordinate with the ISV eco system. In this case this case SAPs, Oracles, Microsofts & IBMs of the world are the problem creators. So when I say problem, I mean that they have created a product of such great usage, that consumer wants to extend/customize to their daily lives at work/home. To address the pain area we have a number of applications in the market to address the consumer needs.
Ipod is one such case, they created a way for listeners to listen to quality music on the go with great use, but the problem that it created was that, consumers felt would it not be great if I could play games on this device, get my personal accounts, carry work on this device. So now you have App stores which are just solving all these problems. Which is great, but you are not the problem creator.
Tally is one product company we love to talk about and they are typical example of a problem creator.
Now When you question why this is so. It looks like a problem with eco system itself that does not encourage problem creator level entrepreneurship. Google, Microsoft, HP all these companies are formed by individuals from Ivy League colleges, but now we have IISC, IIT , IIM and premier engineering and management schools out there with their own incubator programs. So the issues must be the money, there are more VCs looking at India than some of the mature markets.
So according to mean it’s the idea with what you start your company, most the companies look at the ecosystem there is ready 40 million user base for this product or consumer need so let me go and design a product for that. Not many companies In India come up with an idea, let me sell virtual 30*40 plots (referring to Second life, the idea still seems way above but we have every company buying space on Second Life). In years to come we need such problem creator ideas.
Hope there is a day in the Software product ecosystem in India, when the enviorement is dominated by problem creators.
Happy Independence day!
Somehow every time I came across a product it is usually solving a larger problem created by a larger product company in most cases from markets abroad. This is not a dampener when you realize the market share and the kind of revenues that the companies make. But the concern is that we are missing out on the bigger piece of action.
When you are a company of a size of a SAP, Oracle, Microsoft, IBM they have so many Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) that develop software around their platforms that they need to run a partner program to coordinate with the ISV eco system. In this case this case SAPs, Oracles, Microsofts & IBMs of the world are the problem creators. So when I say problem, I mean that they have created a product of such great usage, that consumer wants to extend/customize to their daily lives at work/home. To address the pain area we have a number of applications in the market to address the consumer needs.
Ipod is one such case, they created a way for listeners to listen to quality music on the go with great use, but the problem that it created was that, consumers felt would it not be great if I could play games on this device, get my personal accounts, carry work on this device. So now you have App stores which are just solving all these problems. Which is great, but you are not the problem creator.
Tally is one product company we love to talk about and they are typical example of a problem creator.
Now When you question why this is so. It looks like a problem with eco system itself that does not encourage problem creator level entrepreneurship. Google, Microsoft, HP all these companies are formed by individuals from Ivy League colleges, but now we have IISC, IIT , IIM and premier engineering and management schools out there with their own incubator programs. So the issues must be the money, there are more VCs looking at India than some of the mature markets.
So according to mean it’s the idea with what you start your company, most the companies look at the ecosystem there is ready 40 million user base for this product or consumer need so let me go and design a product for that. Not many companies In India come up with an idea, let me sell virtual 30*40 plots (referring to Second life, the idea still seems way above but we have every company buying space on Second Life). In years to come we need such problem creator ideas.
Hope there is a day in the Software product ecosystem in India, when the enviorement is dominated by problem creators.
Happy Independence day!
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Trek to Chembra
Trekking has been a passion that I have managed to purse on a near annual basis courtesy my team. Every year when we as a team get together we go on a offsite activity which is usually out into the wilderness. The first two treks were into the forests of Mudumalai, the treks were real exciting but not with the quest of reaching a summit but with a coupled feeling of thrill & fear on being able to see an animal in its natural habitat. I have not managed to see any, but a part of my team saw a tiger. According to the available data, the tiger population in Mudumalai Tiger Reserve Forest, could range between 62 and 80 in an area of 321 Square KM. With these stats how precious this sighting is. That is enough backgrounder, but as a trekker I am still a novice in trekking, never scaled the heights of a peak, and this thought was always on, Chembra was the peak to summit.
Chembra is in Wayanad district in Kerala, its 2100m above sea level that is about 6600 feet, height of UB tower is at 120m, which means that the peak is at 17.5 times the height of UB tower. All this data is in retrospect we had no clue about the height of the peak when we started of the trek. We were supposed to start the trek at around 9 AM but we could manage to start only at 12:30.
When we reached the forest office, we were asked to pay five hundred only, and he arranged a guide for us. We had to walk up to the point where the trek starts as the road leading to the start point had caved in, which meant walking at least 5 km. I was asking the guide in Malayalam which was the peak, but he said that the peak could not be seen. This was one question that would be only answered when we finished the trek.
After the uneventful rather boring walk we reached the tower, which was the start point. After catching a few quick glimpses of the view from the tower we started the trek to Chembra. Think we would have covered 3 km when we just did a status check; the route was at a 50 degree incline, and some of us would not be able to make it as the guide told us that it would get worse and more slippery. Some of us had to leave company to maintain critical mass so that they could head back to the tower and wait. The rest of us now resumed the trek. The team here is Syed, Bala, Praveen, Marco, Nasir & myself.
At some point Syed cited a Kannada proverb “doradha Betta Nonnuge” which means a peak is the distance looks small and easy to scale. The trek was no straight path we would have reached 500m above sea level with no sight of chembra; we still had to cross to other peaks before we could even see Chembra.
It’s no rock climbing, cliff hanger kind of stuff, but nature was testing our strengths to scale one of its peaks. After climbing a stretch, on some occasions you would be totally out of breath, some parts it was just steep, so you had to get your position right. We were in monsoon season, so the rocks were slippery and the threat of leeches. On the leeches we never got bitten at all, not that it hurts or we were worried but they just did not get to us.
After a few stretches we reached the grassland part, here the terrain was easier, so these are some of the spots we managed to take a few pictures. The views were amazing you could stand there for days looking at the peak and the mist clad mountains. But we had no sign of the heart shaped lake which was our destination; we saw a heart shaped lake and nearly declaring victory when the guide told us that this was the smaller one and we still had some distance to go. We crossed another peak and finally from a distance we could see the lake, it was like the schools had closed and it was summer holidays. The guys ran towards the lake, from a distance you see clapping, thumbs ups in the air. It was victory. We reached the peak at 2:30, there was no way we could reach the peak as the officers shut the place off by 4:00.
We had finally reached with 2 liters of water and one red bull shared by 6 guys and top it all most of us were in sports shoes which were made so that we could skid. With the rains and the slippery rocks everyone had their fair share of falls. I topped the list, with my 12 year old addidas tennis shoes. This was a shoes bought by my mom, the shoes had whistood all the abuse of 12 year including the previous treks, but on the terrain of chembra asking anti skid from a tennis shoe is just way too much. I slipped at every 5th corner, but finally was able to reach the tower with no major injuries.
Chembra is in Wayanad district in Kerala, its 2100m above sea level that is about 6600 feet, height of UB tower is at 120m, which means that the peak is at 17.5 times the height of UB tower. All this data is in retrospect we had no clue about the height of the peak when we started of the trek. We were supposed to start the trek at around 9 AM but we could manage to start only at 12:30.
When we reached the forest office, we were asked to pay five hundred only, and he arranged a guide for us. We had to walk up to the point where the trek starts as the road leading to the start point had caved in, which meant walking at least 5 km. I was asking the guide in Malayalam which was the peak, but he said that the peak could not be seen. This was one question that would be only answered when we finished the trek.After the uneventful rather boring walk we reached the tower, which was the start point. After catching a few quick glimpses of the view from the tower we started the trek to Chembra. Think we would have covered 3 km when we just did a status check; the route was at a 50 degree incline, and some of us would not be able to make it as the guide told us that it would get worse and more slippery. Some of us had to leave company to maintain critical mass so that they could head back to the tower and wait. The rest of us now resumed the trek. The team here is Syed, Bala, Praveen, Marco, Nasir & myself.
At some point Syed cited a Kannada proverb “doradha Betta Nonnuge” which means a peak is the distance looks small and easy to scale. The trek was no straight path we would have reached 500m above sea level with no sight of chembra; we still had to cross to other peaks before we could even see Chembra.
It’s no rock climbing, cliff hanger kind of stuff, but nature was testing our strengths to scale one of its peaks. After climbing a stretch, on some occasions you would be totally out of breath, some parts it was just steep, so you had to get your position right. We were in monsoon season, so the rocks were slippery and the threat of leeches. On the leeches we never got bitten at all, not that it hurts or we were worried but they just did not get to us.
After a few stretches we reached the grassland part, here the terrain was easier, so these are some of the spots we managed to take a few pictures. The views were amazing you could stand there for days looking at the peak and the mist clad mountains. But we had no sign of the heart shaped lake which was our destination; we saw a heart shaped lake and nearly declaring victory when the guide told us that this was the smaller one and we still had some distance to go. We crossed another peak and finally from a distance we could see the lake, it was like the schools had closed and it was summer holidays. The guys ran towards the lake, from a distance you see clapping, thumbs ups in the air. It was victory. We reached the peak at 2:30, there was no way we could reach the peak as the officers shut the place off by 4:00.We had finally reached with 2 liters of water and one red bull shared by 6 guys and top it all most of us were in sports shoes which were made so that we could skid. With the rains and the slippery rocks everyone had their fair share of falls. I topped the list, with my 12 year old addidas tennis shoes. This was a shoes bought by my mom, the shoes had whistood all the abuse of 12 year including the previous treks, but on the terrain of chembra asking anti skid from a tennis shoe is just way too much. I slipped at every 5th corner, but finally was able to reach the tower with no major injuries.
We had reached a height of 1600m, but 2100 was target it was just that time was not available. With breakfast at 9:00 AM and nothing else when we reached Kalpetta, south indian good breakfast or tiffin items is like an endangered species. Non veg is plentiful but good veg food is rare, but we found solace in an awesome Uduppi restaurant, if there was a video of me eating it would have been in the list of scary vidoes on youtube.
We will be back Chembra some time, as of now we plan to summit Kumara Parvatha in the month of October, which is a 2 day trek.
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